



HHKSKNTK 



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The 

Supernatural in Modern 

English Fiction 



By 

Dorothy Scarborough, Ph.D. 

Instructor in English in Extension, Columbia University 



Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for 
the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of 
Philosophy, Columbia University. 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York and London 

Oibe Iknicftcrbockcr press 

1917 



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Copyright, 1917 

BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



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The UnWertity 
CCr 22 1917 



tlbc finicftcrbocfeer press, "flew ^ovk 



This Monograph has been approved by the Department of 
English and Comparative Literature in Columbia University 
as a contribution to knowledge worthy of publication. 

A. H. Thorxdike. 
Executive Officer. 



Zo 

GEORGE AND ANNE SCARBOROUGH 



PREFACE 

THE subject of the supernatural in modern English 
fiction has been found difficult to deal with because 
of its wealth of material. While there has been no 
previous book on the topic, and none related to it, save 
Mr. C. E.Whitmore's work on The Supernaturalin Tragedy, 
the mass of fiction itself introducing ghostly or psychic 
motifs is simply enormous. It is manifestly impossible 
to discuss, or even to mention, all of it. Even in my 
bibhography which numbers over three thousand titles, I 
have made no effort to list all the available examples of the 
type. The bibliography, which I at first intended to 
publish in connection with this volume, is far too volimiin- 
ous to be included here, so will probably be brought out 
later by itself. 

It would have been impossible for me to prosecute the 
research work or to write the book save for the assistance 
generously given by many persons. I am indebted to the 
various officials of the libraries of Columbia University 
and of New York City, particularly to' Miss Isadore Mudge, 
Reference Librarian of Columbia, and to the authorities 
of the New York Society Library for permission to use 
their priceless out-of-print novels in the Kennedy Collec- 
tion. My interest in English fiction was increased 
during my attendance on some courses in the history 
of the English novel, given by Dr. A. J. Carlyle, in Oxford 
University, England, several years ago. I have received 
helpful bibliographical suggestions from Professor Blanche 
Colton Williams, Dr. Dorothy Brewster, Professor Nelson 
Glenn McCrea, Professor John Cunliffe, and Dean Talcott 



vi Preface 

Williams, of Columbia, and Professor G. L. Kittredge, of 
Harvard. Professors William P. Trent, George Philip 
Krapp, and Ernest Hunter Wright very kindly read 
the book in manuscript and gave valuable advice con- 
cerning it, Professor Wright going over the material with 
me in detail. But my chief debt of gratitude is to 
Professor Ashley H. Thomdike, Head of the Department 
of EngHsh and Comparative Literature in Columbia, 
whose stimulating criticism and kindly encouragement 
have made the book possible. To all of these — and 
others — who have aided me, I am deeply grateful, and 
I only wish that the pubHshed volume were more worthy 
of their assistance. 



D. S. 



Columbia University, 
April, 1917. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 



PAGB 
I 



I. — The Gothic Romance 
II. — Later Influences 
III. — Modern Ghosts .... 
IV. — The Devil and His Allies 
V. — Supernatural Life 
VI. — The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 
VII. — Supernatural Science 
VIII. — Conclusion 



6 

54 
8i 

130 

174 
242 

251 
281 



Vll 



The 

Supernatural in Modern 
EnglisK Fiction 



INTRODUCTION 

THE supernatural is an ever-present force in literature. 
It colors our poetry, shapes our epics and dramas, 
and fashions our prose till we are so wonted to it 
that we lose sense of its wonder and magic. If all the 
elements of the imearthly were removed from our books, 
how shrunken in value would seem the residue, how 
forlorn our feelings! Lafcadio Hearn in the recently 
published volume, Interpretations of Literature, says : 

There is scarcely any great author in European literature, 
old or new, who has not distinguished himself in his treatment 
of the supernatural. In English literature I believe there is 
no exception from the time of the Anglo-Saxon poets to 
Shakespeare, and from Shakespeare to our own day. And this 
introduces us to the consideration of a general and remark- 
able fact, a fact that I do not remember to have seen in any 
books, but which is of very great philosophical importance : 
there is something ghostly in all great art, whether of liter- 
ature, music, sculpture, or architecture. It touches something 
within us that relates to infinity.^ 

* The word ghostly is used here in its earlier sense signifying spiritual. 



2 Introduction 

This continmng presence of the weird in literature shows 
the popular demand for it and must have some basis in 
human psychosis. The night side of the soul attracts us 
all. The spirit feeds on mystery. It lives not by fact 
alone but by the unknowable, and there is no highest 
mystery without the supernatural. Man loves the 
frozen touch of fear, and realizes pure terror only when 
touched by the unmortal. The hint of spectral sounds or 
presences quickens the imagination as no other suggestion 
can do, and no human shapes of fear can awe the soul as 
those from beyond the grave. Man's varying moods 
create heaven, hell, and faery wonder-lands for him, and 
people them with strange beings. 

Man loves the supernatural elements in literature 
perhaps because they dignify him by giving his existence 
a feeling of infinity otherwise denied. They grant him a 
sense of being the center of powers more than earthly, of 
conflicts supermortal. His own material life may be 
however circumscribed and trivial yet he can loose his 
fancy and escape the petty tragedies of his days by flight 
beyond the stars. He can widen the tents of his mortal 
life, create a universe for his companionship, and marshal 
the forces of demons and unknown gods for his commands. 
To his narrow rut he can join the unspaced firmament; to 
his trivial hours add eternity; to his finite, infinity. He 
is so greedy of power, and has so piteously little that he 
must look for his larger life in dreams and in the literature 
of the supernatural. 

But, whatever be the reasons, there has been a con- 
tinuity of the ghostly in literature, with certain rise and 
fall of interest. There is in modem English fiction, as 
likewise in poetry and the drama, a great extent of the 
supernatural, with wide diversity of elements. Beginning 
with the Gothic romance, that curious architectural 
excrescence that yet has had enormous influence on our 



Introduction 3 

novel, the supernatural is found in every period and in 
every form of fiction. The unearthly beings meet us in 
all guises, and answer our every mood, whether it be 
serious or awed, satiric or humoresque. 

Literature, always a little ahead of life, has formed our 
beliefs for us, made us free with spirits, and given us 
entrance to immortal countries. The sense of the un- 
earthly is ever with us, even in the most commonplace 
situations, — and there is nothing so natural to us as the 
supernatural. Our imagination, colored by our reading, 
reveals and transforms the world we live in. We are 
aware of unbodied emotions about us, of discarnate 
moods that mock or invite us. We go a-ghosting now in 
public places, and a specter may glide up to give us an 
apologia pro vita sua any day in Grand Central or on Main 
Street of Our-Town. We chat with fetches across the 
garden fence and pass the time of day with demons by 
way of the dumb-waiter. That gray-furred creature that 
glooms suddenly before us in the winter street is not a 
chauffeur, but a were-wolf questing for his prey. Yon 
whirring thing in the far blue is not an aeroplane but 
a hippogriff that will presently alight on the pavement 
beside us with thundering golden hoofs to bear us away 
to distant lovely lands where we shall be untroubled by 
the price of butter or the articles lost in last week's wash. 
That sedate middle-aged ferry that transports us from 
Staten Island is a magic Sending Boat if only we knew 
its potent runes! The old woman with the too-pink 
cheeks and glittering eye, that presses August bargains 
upon us with the argument that they will be in style 
for early fall wear, is a witch wishful to lure away our 
souls. We may pass at will by the guardian of the narrow 
gate and traverse the regions of the Under- wo rid. True, 
the materialist may argue that the actual is more mar- 
velous than the imagined, that the aeroplane is more a 



4 Introduction 

thing of wonder than was the hippogriff, that the ferry 
is really the enchanted boat, after all, and that Dante 
would write a new Inferno if he could see the subway at 
the rush hour, but that is another issue. 

We might have more psychal experiences than we do if 
we would only keep our eyes open, but most of us do have 
more than we admit to the neighbors. We have an early- 
Victorian reticence concerning ghostly things as if it were 
scandalous to be associated with them. But that is all 
wrong. We should be proud of being singled out for 
spectral confidences and should report our ghost-guests 
to the society columns of the newspaper. It is hoped that 
this discussion of comparative ghost-lore may help to 
establish a better sense of values. 

In this book I deal with ghosts and devils by and large, 
in an impressionistic way. I don't know much about 
them; I have no learned theories of causation. I only 
love them. I only marvel at their infinite variety and am 
touched by their humanity, their likeness to mortals. I 
am fond of them all, even the dejected, dog-eared ghosts 
that look as if they were wraiths of poor relations left 
out in the rain all night, or devils whose own mothers 
wouldn't care for them. It gives me no holier-than-thou 
feeling of horror to sit beside a vampire in the subway, no 
panic to hear a banshee shut up in a hurdy-gurdy box. 
I give a cordial how-do-you-do when a dragon glides up 
and puts his paw in mine, and in every stray dog I recog- 
nize a Gladsome Beast. Like us mortals, they all need 
sympathy, none more so than the poor wizards and bogles 
that are on their own, as the Scotch say. 

While discussing the nineteenth century as a whole, 
I have devoted more attention to the fiction of the super- 
natural in the last thirty years or so, because there has 
been much more of it in that time than before. There is 
now more interest in the occult, more literature produced 



Introduction 5 

dealing with psychal powers than ever before in our his- 
tory. It is apparent in poetry, in the drama, the novel, 
and the short story. I have not attempted, even in 
my bibliography, to include all the fiction of the type, 
since that would be manifestly impossible. I have, 
however, mentioned specimens of the various forms, and 
have listed the more important examples. The 
treatment here is meant to be suggestive rather than 
exhaustive and seeks to show that there is a genuine 
revival of wonder in our time, with certain changes in the 
characterization of supernatural beings. It includes not 
only the themes that are strictly supernatural, but also 
those which, formerly considered unearthly, carry on the 
traditions of the magical. Much of our material of the 
weird has been rationalized, yet without losing its effect 
of wonder for us in fact or in fiction. If now we study 
a science where once men believed blindly in a Black 
Art, is the result really less mysterious? 



CHAPTER I 
TKe GotKic Romance 

THE real precursor of supernaturalism in modern 
English literature was the Gothic novel. That 
odd form might be called a brief in behalf of 
banished romance, since it voiced a protest against the 
excess of rationalism and realism in the early eighteenth 
century. Too great correctness and restraint must always 
result in proportionate liberty. As the eternal swing of 
the pendulum of literary history, the ebb and flow of 
fiction inevitably bring a reaction against any extreme, 
so it was with the fiction of the period. The mysterious 
twilights of medievalism invited eyes tired of the noonday 
glare of Augustan formalism. The natural had become 
famiHar to monotony, hence men craved the supernatural. 
And so the Gothic novel came into being. Gothic is here 
used to designate the eighteenth-century novel of terror 
dealing with medieval materials. 

There had been some use of the weird in English fiction 
before Horace Walpole, but the terror novel proper is 
generally conceded to begin with his Romantic curiosity. 
The Castle of Otranto. The Gothic novel marks a distinct 
change in the form of literature in which supernaturalism 
manifests itself. Heretofore the supernatural elements 
have appeared in the drama, in the epic, in ballads and 
other poetry, and in folk-tales, but not noticeably in the 
novel. Now, however, for a considerable time the ghostly 

6 



The Gothic Romance 7 

themes are most prominent in lengthy fiction, contrasted 
with the short story which later is to supersede it as a 
vehicle for the weird. This vacillation of form is a dis- 
tinct and interesting aspect of the development of super- 
naturalism in literature and will be discussed later. 

With this change in form comes a corresponding change 
in the materials of ghostly narration. Poetry in general 
in all times has freely used the various elements of super- 
naturalism. The epic has certain distinct themes, such 
as visits to the lower world, visions of heaven, and conflict 
between mortal and divine powers, and brings in mytho- 
logical characters, gods, goddesses, demigods, and the 
like. Fate is a moving figure in the older dramas, while 
the liturgical plays introduced devils, angels, and even the 
Deity as characters in the action. In the classical and 
Elizabethan drama we see ghosts, witches, magicians, 
as dramatis personcE. Medieval romances, prose as well 
as metrical and alliterative, chansons de geste, lais, and 
so forth, drew considerably on the supernatural for compli- 
cating material in various forms, and undoubtedly much 
of our present element comes from medievalism. Tales 
of the Celtic Otherworld, of fairy-lore, of magic, so popular 
in early romance, show a strong revival to-day. 

The Gothic novel is more closely related to the drama 
than to the epic or to such poetry as The Faerie Queene 
or Comus. On the other hand, the later novels and stories, 
while less influenced by the dramatic tradition, show more 
of the epic trace than does the Gothic romance. The epic 
tours through heaven and hell, the lavish use of angels, 
devils, and even of Deity, the introduction of mythological 
characters and figures which are not seen in Gothic fiction, 
appear to a considerable extent in the stories of recent 
times. In Gothicism we find that the Deity disappears 
though the devil remains. There are no vampires, so far 
as I have been able to find, though the were- wolf and the 



8 The Gothic Romance 

lycanthrope appear, which were absent from the drama 
(save in The Duchess of Malfi). Other elements are seen, 
such as the beginnings of the scientific supernaturaHsm 
which is to become so prominent in later times. The 
Wandering Jew comes in and the elixir of life and the 
philosopher's stone achieve importance. Mechanical su- 
pernaturaHsm and the uncanny power given to inanimate 
objects seem to have their origins here, to be greatly 
developed further on. Supernaturalism associated with 
animals, related both to the mythological stories of the 
past and to the more horrific aspects of later fiction, are 
noted in the terror romance. 

Allegory and symbolism are present in a slight degree, 
as in Melmoth and Vathek's Hall of Eblis, though not 
emphasized as in more modern literature. Humor is 
largely lacking in the Gothic romance, save as the writers 
furnish it unintentionally. In Gothicism itself we have 
practically no satire, though Jane Austen and Barrett 
satirize the terror novel itself in delicious burlesques that 
laugh it out of court. 

Elements of Gothicism. In the terror tale the relation- 
ship between supernatural effect and Gothic architecture, 
scenery, and weather is strongly stressed. Ever3rthing is 
ordered to fit the Gothic plan, and the conformity becomes 
in time conventionally monotonous. Horace Walpole, 
the father of the terror novel, had a fad for medievalism, 
and he expressed his enthusiasm in that extraordinary 
building at Strawberry Hill, courteously called a Gothic 
castle. From a study of Gothic architecture was but a 
step to the writing of romance that should reproduce the 
mysteries of feudal times, for the shadows of ancient, 
gloomy castles and cloisters suggested the shades of 
ghost-haunted fiction, of morbid terrors. The Castle of 
Otranto was the outcome of a dream suggested by the 
author's thinking about medieval structures. 



The Gothic Romance 9 

The Gothic castle itself is represented as possessing 
all the antique glooms that increase the effect of mystery 
and awe, and its secret passage-ways, its underground 
vaults and dungeons, its trap-doors, its mouldy, spectral 
chapel, form a fit setting for the unearthly visitants that 
haunt it. A feudal hall is the suitable domicile for ghosts 
and other supernatural revenants, and the horrific 
romance throughout shows a close kinship with its archi- 
tecture. The novels of the class invariably lay their 
scenes in medieval buildings, a castle, a convent, a mon- 
astery, a chateau or abbey, or an inquisitional prison. 
The harassed heroine is forever wandering through 
midnight corridors of Gothic structure. And indeed, the 
opportunity for unearthly phenomena is much more 
spacious in the vast piles of antiquity than in our bunga- 
lows or apartment-houses. 

Mrs. Radcliffe erected many ruinous structures in 
fiction. Her Mysteries of Udolpho shows a castle, a 
convent, a chateau, all Gothic in terror and gloomy 
secrets, with rooms hung with rotting tapestry, or wain- 
scoted with black larch- wood, with furniture dust-covered 
and dropping to pieces from age, with palls of black velvet 
waving in the ghostly winds. In other romances she 
depicts decaying castles with treacherous stairways 
leading to mysterious rooms, halls of black marble, and 
vaults whose great rusty keys groan in the locks. One 
heroine says:' ''When I entered the portals of this Gothic 
structure a chill — surely prophetic — chilled my veins, 
pressed upon my heart, and scarcely allowed me to 
breathe." 

The Ancient Records of the Abbey of St. Oswyth^ 
says of its setting: "The damp, cold, awe-inspiring hall 
seemed to conjure up ten thousand superstitious horrors 
and terrific imaginary apparitions." In Maturin's Al- 

^ In The Romance of the Castle. 'By T. J. Horsley-Curties. 



10 The Gothic Romance 

higenses the knights assemble rotind the great fire in the 
baronial hall and tell ghost tales while the storm rages 
outside. In Melmoth, the Wanderer the scene changes 
often, yet it is always Gothic and terrible, — the monastery 
with its diabolical piinishments, the ancient castle, the 
ruined abbey by which the wanderer celebrates his 
marriage at midnight with a dead priest for the celebrant, 
the madhouse, the inquisition cells, which add gloom 
and horror to the supernatural incidents and characters. 
In Zofioya, ^ the maiden is imprisoned in an underground 
cave similar to that boasted by other castles. This novel 
is significant because of the freedom with which Shelley 
appropriated its material for his Zastrozzi, which likewise 
has the true Gothic setting. In Shelley's other romance 
he erects the same structure and has the devil meet his 
victim by the desolate, dear old Gothic abbey 

Regina Maria Roche wrote a number of novels built 
up with crimibling castles, awesome abbeys, and donjon- 
keeps whose titles show the architectural fiction that 
dominates them. A list of the names of the Gothic novels 
will serve to show the general importance laid on antique 
setting. In fact, the castle, abbey, monastery, chateau, 
convent, or inquisition prison occupied such an important 
place in the story that it seemed the leading character. 
It dominated the events and was a malignant personality, 
that laid its spell upon those within its bounds. It shows 
something of the character that Hawthorne finally gives 
to his house of seven gables, or the brooding, relentless 
power of the sea in Synge's drama. ^ The ancient castle 
becomes not merely haunted itself but is the haunter as 
well. 

Not only is architecture made subservient to the needs 
of Gothic fiction, but the scenery likewise is adapted to 

* By Mrs. Dacre, better known as " Rosa Matilda." 

* Riders to the Sea. 



The Gothic Romance ii 

fit it. Before Mrs. Radcliffe wrote her stories interlarded 
with nature descriptions, scant notice had been paid to 
scenery in the novel. But she set the style for morose 
landscapes as Walpole had for glooming castles, and the 
succeeding romances of the genre combined both features. 
Mrs. Radcliffe was not at all hampered by the fact that 
she had never laid eyes on the scenes she so vividly pic- 
tures. She painted the dread scenery of awesome moun- 
tains and forests, beetling crags and dizzy abysses with 
fluent and fervent adjectives, and her successors imitated 
her in sketching nature with dark impressionism. 

The scenery in general in the- Gothic novel is always 
subjectively represented. Nature in itself and of itself 
is not the important thing. What the writer seeks to do 
is by descriptions of the outer world to emphasize the 
mental states of man, to reflect the moods of the charac- 
ters, and to show a fitting background for their crimes and 
unearthly experiences. There is little of the light of day, 
of the cheerfulness of ordinary nature, but only the scenes 
and phenomena that are in harmony with the glooms of 
crimes and sufferings. 

Like the scenery, the weather in the Gothic novel is 
always subjectively treated. There is ever an artistic 
harmony between man's moods and the atmospheric 
conditions. The play of lightning, supernatural thunders, 
roaring tempests announce the approach and operations 
of the devil, and ghosts walk to the accompaniment of 
presaging tempests. In The Albigenses the winds are 
diabolically possessed and laugh fiendishly instead of 
moaning as they do as seneschals in most romances of 
terror. The storms usually take place at midnight, and 
there is rarely a peaceful night in Gothic fiction. The 
stroke of twelve generally witnesses some uproar of nature 
as some appearance of restless spirit. Whenever the 
heroines in Mrs. Radcliffe's tales start on their midnight 



12 The Gothic Romance 

ramble through subterranean passages and halls of horror, 
the barometer becomes agitated. And another' says: 
"The storm, that at that moment was tremendous, could 
not equal that tempest which passed in the thoughts of 
the unhappy captive." 

In Zofloya Victoria's meetings in the forest with the 
Moor, who is really the devil in disguise, are accompanied 
by supernatural manifestations of nature. The weather 
is ordered to suit the dark, imholy plots they make, and 
they plan murders against a background of black clouds, 
hellish thunder, and lurid lightning. When at last the 
Moor announces himself as the devil and hurls Victoria 
from the mountain top, a sympathetic storm arises and 
a flood sweeps her body into the river. This scene is 
accusingly like the one in the last chapter of Lewis's 
Monk, where the devil throws Ambrosio from the cliff 
to the river's brink. 

Instantly a violent storm arose; the \\ands in fury rent up 
rocks and forests; the sky was now black with clouds, now 
sheeted with fire; the rain fell in torrents; it swelled the stream, 
the waves over-flowed their banks; they reached the spot 
where Ambrosio lay, and, when they abated, carried with 
them into the river the corse of the despairing monk. 

No Gothic writer shows more power of harmonizing 
the tempests of the soul with the outer storms than does 
Charles Robert Maturin. "^ As Melmoth, doomed to 
dreadful life till he can find some tortured soul willing to 
exchange destinies with him, traverses the earth in his 
search, the preternatural aspects of weather both reflect 
and mock his despair. As the young nephew alone at 
midnight after his uncle's death reads the fated manu- 
script, "cloud after cloud comes sweeping on like the 
dark banners of an approaching host whose march is for 

^ St. Oswyth. 2 In Melmoth, the Wanderer and The Albigenses. 



The Gothic Romance 13 

destruction." Other references may illustrate the motif. 
"Clouds go portentously off like ships of war ... to 
return with added strength and fury." **The dark and 
heavy thunder- clouds that advance slowly seem like the 
shrouds of specters of departed greatness. Peals of 
thunder sounded, every peal like the exhausted murmurs 
of a spent heart." 

In general, in the Gothic novel there is a decided and 
definite attempt to use the terrible forces of nature to 
reflect the dark passions of man, with added suggestive- 
ness where supernatural agencies are at work in the 
events. This becomes a distinct convention, used with 
varying effectiveness. Nowhere in the fiction of the 
period is there the power such as Shakespeare reveals, as 
where Lear wanders on the heath in the pitiless clutch of 
the storm, with a more tragic tempest in his soul. Yet, 
although the idea of the inter-relation of the passions of 
man and nature is not original with the Gothicists, and 
though they show little of the inevitability of genius, they 
add greatly to their supernatural effect by this method. 
Later fiction is less barometric as less architectural than 
the Gothic. 

The Origin of Individual Gothic Tales, The psycholog- 
ical origin of the individual Gothic romances is interesting 
to note. Supernaturalism was probably more generally 
believed in then than now, and people were more given to 
the telling of ghost stories and all the folk-tales of terror 
than at the present time. One reason for this may be that 
they had more leisure ; and their great open fires were more 
conducive to the retailing of romances of shudders than 
our unsocial steam radiators. The eighteenth century 
seemed frankly to enjoy the pleasures of fear, and the rise 
of the Gothic novel gave rein to this natural love for the 
uncanny and the gruesome. 

Dreams played an important part in the inspiration of 



14 The Gothic Romance 

the tales of terror. The initial romance was, as the 
author tells us, the result of an architectural nightmare. 
Walpole says in a letter : 

Shall I even confess to you what was the origin of this 
romance? I waked one morning from, a dream, of which all 
that I could recall was that I had thought myself in an ancient 
castle (a very natural dream for a head filled like mine with 
Gothic story) and that at the uppermost banister of a great 
staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armor. In the evening I 
sat down and began to write, without knowing in the least 
what I intended to say or relate. The work grew on my hands. 

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was likewise bom of a 
dream. "Monk" Lewis had interested Byron, Polidori, 
and the Shelleys in supernatural tales so much so that 
after a fireside recital of German terror stories Byron 
proposed that each member of the group should write 
a ghostly romance to be compared with the compositions 
of the others. The results were negligible save Franken- 
stein, and it is said that Byron was much annoyed that a 
mere girl should excel him. At first Mrs. Shelley was 
unable to hit upon a plot, but one evening after hearing 
a discussion of Erasmus Darwin's attempts to create life 
by laboratory experiments, she had an idea in a half 
waking dream. She says : 

I saw — with shut eyes but acute mental vision — I saw the 
pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he 
had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man 
stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful 
engine, show signs of life. . . . The artist sleeps but he is 
awakened; and behold, the horrid thing stands at his bedside, 
looking on him with watery, yellow yet speculative eyes! 

And from this she wrote her story of the man-monster. 
The relation of dreams to the uncanny tale is interesting. 



The Gothic Romance 15 

Dreams and visions, revelatory of the past and prophetic 
of the future, played an important part in the drama 
(as they are now widely used in motion-picture scenarios) 
and the Gothic novel continues the tradition. It 
would be impossible to discover in how many instances 
the authors were subconsciously influenced in their 
choice of material by dreams. The presaging dreams and 
visions attributed to supernatural agency appear fre- 
quently in Gothic fiction. The close relation between 
dreams and second sight in the terror novel might form 
an interesting by-path for investigation. Dream-super- 
naturalism becomes even more prominent in later fiction 
and contributes passages of extraordinary power of which 
De Quincey's Dream-Fugue may be mentioned as an 
example. 

The germinal idea for Melmoth, the Wanderer was 
contained in a paragraph from one of the author's own 
sermons, which suggested a theme for the story of a 
doomed, fate-pursued soul. 

At this moment is there one of us present, however we may 
have departed from the Lord, disobeyed His will, and dis- 
regarded His word — is there one of us who would, at this 
moment, accept all that man could bestow or earth could 
afford, to resign the hope of his salvation? No, there is not 
one — not such a fool on earth were the enemy of mankind to 
traverse it with the offer ! 

True, the theme of such devil-pact had appeared in 
folk-tales and in the drama previously, notably in Mar- 
lowe's Doctor Faustus, but Maturin here gives the idea a 
dramatic twist and psychologic poignancy by making a 
human being the one to seek to buy another's soul to save 
his own. A mortal, cursed with physical immortality, 
ceaselessly harried across the world by the hounds of 
fate, forever forced by an irresistible urge to make his 



i6 The Gothic Romance 

impitiable offer to tormented souls, and always meeting 
a tragic refusal, offers dramatic possibilities of a high order 
and Maturin's story has a dreadful power. 

Clara Reeve's avowed purpose in writing The Old 
English Baron was to produce a ghost story that should 
be more probable and realistic than Walpole's. She 
stated that her book was the literary offspring of the 
earlier romance, though Walpole disclaimed the paternity. 
She deplored the violence of the supernatural machinery 
that tended to defeat its own impressiveness and wished 
to avoid that danger in her work, though she announced : 
"We can conceive and allow for the appearance of a 
ghost." Her prim recipe for Romantic fiction required, 
* ' a certain degree of the marvelous to excite the attention ; 
enough of the manners of real life to give an air of prob- 
ability to the work ; and enough of the pathetic to engage 
the heart in its behalf." But her ingredients did not mix 
well and the result was rather indigestible though de- 
voured by hungry readers of her time. 

Mrs. Anne Radcliffe, that energetic manipulator of 
Gothic enginery, wrote because she had time that was 
wasting on her hands, — which may be an explanation for 
other and later literary attempts. Her journalist husband 
was away till late at night, so while sitting up for him she 
wrote frightful stories to keep herself from being scared. 
During that waiting loneliness she doubtless experienced 
all those nervous terrors that she describes as being under- 
gone by her palpitating maidens, whose emotional anguish 
is suffered in midnight wanderings through subterranean 
passages and ghosted apartments. There is one report 
that she went mad from over-much brooding on mormo, 
but that is generally discredited. 

Matthew Gregory Lewis was impelled to write The 
Monk by reading the romances of Walpole and Mrs. 
Radcliffe, together with Schiller's Robbers, which triple 



The Gothic Romance 17 

influence is discernible in his lurid tale. He defended the 

indecency of his book by asserting that he took the plot 
from a story in The Guardian, "^ ingeniously intimating 
that plagiarized immorality is less reprehensible than 
original material. Shelley, in his turn, was so strongly 
impressed by Lewis's Mo7tk, and Mrs. Dacre's Zofloya in 
writing his Zastrozzi, and by William Godwin's St. Leon 
in his St. Irvyne, or The Rosicrucian, that the adaptation 
amounts to actual plagiarism. Even the titles show 
imitation. In writing to Godwin, Shelley said he was "in 
a state of intellectual sickness" when he wrote these 
stories, and no one who is famiHar with the productions 
will contradict him in the matter. 

The influence of the crude scientific thought and inves- 
tigation of the eighteenth centiu-y is apparent in the 
Gothic novels. Frankenstein, as we have seen, was the 
outcome of a Romantic, Dar^dnian dream, and novels by 
Godwin, Shelley, and Maturin deal with the theme of the 
elixir of life. William Beckford's Vathek has to do with 
alchemy, sorcery, and other phases of supernatural science. 
Zofloya, Mrs. Dacre's diabolical Moor, performs experi- 
ments in hypnotism, telepathy, sorcery, and satanic 
chemistry. And so in a number of the imitative and less 
known novels of the genre science plays a part in furnish- 
ing the material. There is much interest in the study of 
the relation of science to the literature of supematuralism 
in the various periods and the discoveries of modem 
times as furnishing plot material. The Gothic contri- 
bution to this form of ghostly fiction is significant, though 
slight in comparison with later developments. 

The Gothic Ghosts. The Ghost is the real hero or hero- 
ine of the Gothic novel. The merely human characters 
become for the reader colorless and dull the moment a 
specter glides up and indicates a willingness to relate 

^ "The History of Santon Barsis," The Guardian, Number 148. 



1 8 The Gothic Romance 

the story of his life. The continuing popularity of the 
shade in literature may be due to the fact that humanity 
finds fear one of the most pleasurable of emotions and 
truly enjoys vicarious horrors, or it may be due to a child- 
ish delight in the sensational. At all events, the ghost 
haunts the pages of terror fiction, and the trail of the 
supernatural is over them all. In addition to its associa- 
tion with ancient superstitions, survivals of animistic 
ideas in primitive culture, we may see the classical and 
Elizabethan influence in the Gothic specter. The pro- 
logue-ghost, naturally, is not needed in fiction, but 
the revenge-ghost is as prominent as ever. The ghost 
as a dramatic personage, his talkativeness, his share in 
the action, reflect the dramatic tradition, with a strong 
Senecan touch. The Gothic phantoms have not the 
power of Shakespeare's apparitions, nothing approaching 
the psychologic subtlety of Hamlet or Julius Ccesar or the 
horrific suggestiveness of Macbeth, yet they are related 
to them and are not altogether poor. Though imitative 
of the dramatic ghosts they have certain characteristics 
peculiar to themselves and are greatly worth considera- 
tion in a study of literary supematuralism. 

There are several clearly marked classes of ghosts in 
Gothicism. There is the real ghost that anybody can 
pin faith to ; there is the imagined apparition that is only 
a figment of hysterical fear or of a guilty conscience ; and 
there is the deliberate hoax specter. There are ghosts 
that come only when called, — sometimes the castle 
dungeons have to be paged for retiring shades ; others appear 
of their own free will. Some have a local habitation 
and a name and haunt only their own proper premises, 
while others have the wanderlust. There are innocent 
spirits returning to reveal the circumstances of their 
violent demise and to ask Christian burial ; we meet guilty 
souls sent back to do penance for their sins in the place 



The Gothic Romance 19 

of their commission; and there are revenge ghosts of 
multiple variety. There are specters that yield to prayers 
and strong-minded shades that resist exorcism. It is 
difficult to classify them, for the lines cross inextricably. 

The genealogical founder of the family of Gothic ghosts 
is the giant apparition in The Castle of Otranto. He 
heralds his coming by an enormous helmet, a hundred 
times larger than life size, which crashes into the hall, and 
a sword which requires a hundred men to bear it in. The 
ghost himself appears in sections. We first see a Brob- 
dignagian foot and leg, with no body, then a few chapters 
later an enormous hand to match. In the last scene he 
assembles his parts, after the fashion of an automobile 
demonstration, supplies the limbs that are lacking and 
stands forth as an imposing and portentous shade. After 
receiving Alfonso's specter — Alfonso will be remembered 
as the famous statue afflicted with the nose-bleed — he 
"is wrapt from mortal eyes in a blaze of glory." That 
seems singular, considering the weighty material of which 
he and his armor are made. There is another interesting 
specter in the castle, the monk who is seen kneeling in 
prayer in the gloomy chapel and who, ''turning slowly 
round discovers to Frederick the fleshless jaws and 
empty sockets of a skeleton wrapped in a hermit's 
cowl." 

Clara Reeve's young peasant in The Old English Baron, 
the unrecognized heir to the estate, who is spending a 
night in the haunted apartment, sees two apparitions, one 
a woman and the other a gentleman in armor though not 
of such appalling size as the revenant in Otranto. The 
two announce themselves as his long-lost parents and 
vanish after he is estated and suitably wed. Mrs. Rad- 
cliffe' introduces the shade of a murdered knight, a 
chatty personage who haunts a baronial hall full of men, 

' In Gaston de Blondeville. 



20 The Gothic Romance 

and at another time engages in a tournament, slaying his 
opponent. 

Mrs. Bonhote' shows us a migratory ghost of whom the 
old servant complains in vexation : 

Only think, Miss, of a ghost that should be at home minding 
its own business at the Baron's own castle, taking the trouble 
to follow him here on special business it has to communicate! 
However, travelling three or four hundred miles is nothing to a 
ghost that can, as I have heard, go at the rate of a thousand 
miles a minute on land or sea. 

In this romance the baron goes to visit the vault and has 
curdling experiences. 

"A deep groan issues from the coffin and a voice ex- 
claims, ' You hurt me ! Forbear or you will crush my bones 
to powder! ' " He knocks the coffin in pieces, whereupon 
the vocal bones demand decent burial and his departure 
from the castle. Later the baron sees the ghost of his 
first wife, who objects to his making a third matrimonial 
venture, though she has apparently conceded the second. 
In the same story a young woman's spook pursues one 
Thomas, almost stamping on his heels, and finally vanish- 
ing like a sky-rocket, leaving an odor of brimstone behind. 
A specter rises from a well in The History oj Jack Smith, 
or the Castle of Saint Donats, "" and shakes its hoary head 
at a group of men who fire pistols at it. 

The Castle oj Caithness^ shows a murdered father in- 
dicating his wounds to his son and demanding vengeance. 
An armored revenge ghost appears in Count Roderick's 
Castle, or Gothic Times, an anonymous Philadelphia novel, 
telling his son the manner of his murder, and scaring the 
king, who has killed him, to madness. The revenge ghosts 
in the Gothic do not cry ' ' Vindicta ! " as frequently as in 

» In Bungay Castle. 

» By Charles Lucas, Baltimore. 3 By F. H. P. 



The Gothic Romance 21 

the early drama, but they are as relentless in their hate. 
In Ancient Records, or The Abbey of St. Oswyth, ^ the spirit 
of a nun who has been wronged and buried alive by the 
wicked baron returns with silent, tormenting reproach. 
She stands beside him at midnight, with her dead infant 
on her breast. 

Suddenly the eyes of the specter become animated. Oh! — 
then what flashes of appalling anger dart from their hollow 
orbits on the horror-stricken Vortimer! Three dreadful 
shrieks ring pealing through the chamber now filled with a 
blaze of sulphurous light. The specter suddenly becomes 
invisible and the baron falls senseless on his couch. 

Scant wonder! In the same story Rosaline, the distressed 
heroine, is about to wed against her will, when a specter 
appears and forbids the bans. Again, Gondemar has a 
dagger at her throat with wicked intent, when a spook 
''lifts up his hollow, sunken countenance and beckons 
with angry gestures for his departure." Gondemar 
departs ! 

Another revenge ghost creates excitement in The Accus- 
ing Spirit. A murdered marquis appears repeatedly to 
interested parties and demands punishment on his 
brother who has slain him. Another inconsiderate 
specter in the same volume wakes a man from his sleep, 
and beckoning him to follow, leads him to a subterranean 
vault, stamps his foot on a certain stone, shows a ghastly 
wound in his throat and vanishes. On investigation, 
searchers find a corpse in a winding-sheet beneath the in- 
dicated spot. Another accusing spirit appears in the same 
story — that of Benedicta, a recreant nun, who glides as 
a headless and mutilated figure through the cloisters and 
hovers over the convent bed where she "breathed out 
her guilty soul." The young heroine who has taken 

^ By T. J. Horsley-Curties. 



22 The Gothic Romance 

temporar}' refuge in the convent and has to share the 
cell with this disturbiag room-mate, is informed by an 
old mm that, "Those damned spirits who for mysterious 
purposes receive permission to wander over the earth can 
possess no power to injure us but that which they may 
derive from the weakness of our imagination." Never- 
theless, the ner\'ous girl insists on changing her room! 
Another famous cloistered ghost, one of the pioneer 
female apparitions of note, is the Bleeding Xun in Lewis's 
The Monk, that hall of Gothic horrors. He provides an 
understudy for her, who impersonates the nun in times 
of emergency, providing complicatiag confusion for the 
other characters and for the reader. 

Ghosts begin to crowd upon each others' heels in later 
Gothic novels. Xo romance is so poor as not to have a 
retinue of specters, or at least, a ghost-of-all-work. Em- 
boldened by their success as indi\4duals, spooks appear in 
groups and mobs. WiUiam Beckford in his Vathek presents 
two thousand specters in one assembly. Beckford was no 
niggard! In Matirrin's The Albigenses, deMontfort, pass- 
ing alone through a dark forest, meets the phantoms of 
countless victims of his religious persecution. Men, women, 
young maidens, babes at the breast, all move toward him 
with unspeakable reproach, with "clattering bones, eye- 
less sockets, bare and grinning jaws." Aside from Dante 
the most impressive description of unhappy spirits in 
a large number is given in Vathek in that immortal 
pictiire of the Hall of Eblis. Beckford shows here a 
concourse of doomed souls, each with his hand forever 
pressed above his burning heart, each canying his own 
hell within him, having lost heaven's most precious boon, 
the soul's hope! In the Hall of Eblis there are the still 
living corpses, "the fleshless forms of the pre-adamite 
kings, who still possess enough life to be conscious of their 
deplorable condition; they regard one another with looks 



The Gothic Romance 23 

of the deepest dejection, each holding his right hand 
motionless above his heart." The prophet Soliman is 
there, from whose livid lips come tragic words of his sin 
and punishment. Through his breast, transparent as 
glass, the beholder can see his heart enveloped in flames. 

In James Hogg's The Wool-Gatherer, a man of very evil 
life is haunted by the wraiths of those he has wronged. 
As he lies on his death-bed, not only he, but those around 
him as well, hear the pleading voices 01 women, the pitiful 
cries of babes around his bed, though nothing is visible. 
We have here a suggestion of the invisible supematuralivSm 
that becomes so frequent and effective a motif in later 
fiction. After the man is dead, the supernatural sounds 
become so dreadful that "the corpse sits up in the bed, 
pawls wi' its hands and stares round wi' its dead face!" 
When the watchers leave the room for a few moments, 
the body mysteriously disappears and is never found. 
A somewhat similar instance occurs in one of Ambrose 
Bierce's modern stories of dead bodies. 

There is some attempt to exorcise restless spirits in a 
number of Gothic novels. On various occasions the 
priests come forth with bell, book, and candle to pro- 
nounce anathema against the troublesome visitants. In 
one story a monk crosses his legs to scare away the spec- 
ter, but forgets and presently tumbles over. In another, ^ 
the priest peremptorily bids the ghosts depart and breaks 
the news firmly to them that they cannot return for a 
thousand years. But one bogle, whether of feeble under- 
standing or strong will, comes in to break up the cere- 
monies of incantation, and scares the priest into hysterics. 

The imagined ghost appears in many of the Gothic tales, 
whose writers lack the courage of their supernaturalism. 
Mrs. Radcliffe, for instance, loves to build up a tissue 
of ghostly horrors, yet explains them away on natural 

* The Spirit of Turrettville. 



24 The Gothic Romance 

groundvS after the reader fancies he sees a spirit around 
every comer. 

The ghosts that are dehberately got up for the pur- 
poses of deception form an interesting feature of Gothic 
methods. The reasons behind the spectral impersona- 
tions are various, to frighten criminals into restitution 
after confession, to further crime, or merely to enliven 
the otherwise lagging story. In The Spirit of Turrett- 
ville two youths follow the sounds of plaintive music 
till, in a deserted, spookish apartment, they see a woman 
playing at an old harp. As they draw near, they see only 
skeleton hands on the keys and the apparition turns 
toward them ''a grinning, mouldering skull." She waves 
her hands with haughty rebuke for their intrusion and 
*' stalks" out of the oratory. She gives further per- 
formances, however, singing a song composed for the 
occasion. But the reader, after such thrills, resents 
finding out later that she is the living wife, attempting to 
frighten the villain into confession. 

In The Accusing Spirit a bogus spook is constructed 
by means of phosphorus, aided by a strong resemblance 
between two men, to accuse an innocent man of murder. 
The apparition dramatically makes his charge, but is 
unmasked just in time to save the victim's life. A tall, 
cadaverous young man makes up for a ghost in an 
anonymous novel, ' while a mysterious woman in a black 
veil attends a midnight funeral in the castle, then un- 
accountably disappears. 

In Melmoth the monks persecute a despised brother by 
impersonating spirits in his cell. They cover the walls 
with images of fiends, over which they smear phosphorus, 
and burn sulphur to assist the deception. They utter 
mocking cries as of demons, seeking to drive him mad. 
In Lewis's Monk there is a false Bleeding Nun as well as 

' In Ariel, or the Invisible Monitor. 



The Gothic Romance 25 

the bona fide specter. In other Gothic novels there are 
various spectral frauds cleverly planned, and then re- 
vealed, but their explanation does not altogether dispel 
the uncanny impression they make. 

The ghost that stays at home in a definite place, haunt- 
ing its own demesne, is a familiar figure in the fiction of 
the period. Every castle has its haunted tower or 
dungeon or apartment with its shade that walks by night. 
Several appear carrying candles or lamps to light them 
through the blackness of architectural labyrinths. Several 
evince a fondness for bells and herald their coming by 
rings. In one romance,^ the ghost takes the form of a 
white cow. (Doubtless many ghosts in real life have had a 
similar origin.) In another, ^ a specter in armor appears to 
terrify his murderer, and supernatural lightning aids in 
his revenge. 

It would be impossible to designate all the ghosts in 
Gothic fiction for there is wholesale haunting. They 
appear in the plot to warn, to comfort or command, and 
seem to have very human characteristics on the whole. 
Yet they are not so definitely personated, not so in- 
dividual and realistic as the spirits in later fiction, though 
they do achieve some creepy effects. It is not their 
brute force that impresses us. We are less moved by the 
armored knight and the titanic adversary in Otranto 
than by the phantoms in the Hall of Eblis. The vindic- 
tive ghosts, mouldy from the vault, are less appalling 
than the bodiless voices of wronged women and children 
that haunt the death-bed and bring a corpse back to 
dreadful life. The specters with flamboyant personality, 
that oppress us with their egotistic clamor, may be soon 
forgotten, but the ghostly suggestiveness of other spirits 
has a haunting power that is inescapable. Some of the 

' The Spirit of the Castle. 

' Ethelwina, or the House of Fitz-Auburne, by T. J. Horsley-Curties. 



26 The Gothic Romance 

Gothic ghosts have a strange vitality, — and, after all, 
where would be the phantoms of to-day but for their 
early services? 

Witches and Warlocks. While not at all equal in 
importance to the ghosts, witches and warlocks add to the 
excitement in Gothic fiction. There is but little change 
from the witch of dramatic tradition, for we have both 
the real and the reputed witch in the terror novel, the 
genuine antique hag who has powers given her from the 
devil, and the beautiful yoimg girl who is wrongly sus- 
pected of an unholy alliance with the dark spirits. 

In Melmoth, there is an old woman doctor who has 
uncanny ability. She tells fortunes, gives spells against 
the evil eye and produces weird results ''by spells and 
such dandy as is beyond our element." She turns the 
mystic yarn to be dropped into the pit, on the brink 
of which stands "the shivering inquirer into futurity, 
doubtful whether the answer to her question 'Who holds?' 
is to be uttered by the voice of a demon or lover." In 
The Alhigenses three Weird Sisters appear that are not 
altogether poor imitations of Shakespeare's own. Matilda 
in The Monk possesses daemonic power of enchantment and 
in the subterranean passages of the monastery she works 
her unhallowed arts. The hag Carathis, in Vathek, is a 
witch of rare skill, who concocts her magic potions and 
by supernatural means forces all things to her will. 
There are several witches and warlocks in James Hogg's 
The Hunt of Eildon, who work much mischief but at last 
are captured and convicted. They have the choice of 
being burned alive or being baptized, but with wild 
cries they struggle against the holy water and face the 
flames. 

In Hogg's Brownie of Bodbeck, Marion Linton believes 
her own daughter is a witch and thinks she should be 
given the trial by fire or water. There is an innocent 



The Gothic Romance 27 

young reputed witch in The Hunt oj Eildon, who is 
sentenced to death for her art. 

The Devil. The devil incarnate is one of the familiar 
figures in the terror novel. Here, as in the case of the 
ghost, we see the influence of the dramatic rather than 
of the epic tradition. He is akin to Calderon's wonder- 
working magician and Marlowe's Dr. Faustus rather 
than to the satanic creations of Dante and Milton. He is 
not a dread, awe-inspiring figure either physically or as 
a personality, though he does assume terrifying, almost 
epic proportions m the closing scenes of The Monk and 
Zofloya. Neither is he as human, as appealing to our 
sympathies as the lonely, misjudged, misunderstood devils 
in later fiction. We neither love nor greatly fear the 
Gothic demon. Yet he does appear in interesting vari- 
ants and deserves our study. 

In Hogg's Hunt of Eildon the devil comes in as a strange 
old man who yet seems curiously familiar to the king and 
to everyone who sees him, though no one can remember 
just when he knew him. There is a clever psychologic 
suggestiveness here, which perhaps inspired a similar 
idea in a recent play, The Eternal Magdalen. Later he is 
recognized and holy water thrown on him. 

The whole form and visage of the creature was changed in 
a moment to that of a furious fiend. He uttered a yell that 
made all the abbey shake to its foundations and forthwith 
darted away into the air, wrapt in flames. As he ascended, 
he waved his right hand and shook his fiery locks at his 
inquisitors. 

There is nothing dubious about his personality here, 
certainly ! 

Satan appears dramatically in The Monk as well. His 
first visits are made in the form of attractive youth. 
Ambrosio, who has been led into sin by the daemonic 



28 The Gothic Romance 

agent, Matilda, is awaiting death in the Inquisition cell, 
when she comes to see him to urge that he win release by 
selling his soul to the devil. But the repentant monk 
refuses her advice, so she departs in a temper of blue 
flame. Then he has a more dread visitant, — Lucifer 
himself, described as follows : 

His blasted limbs still bore the marks of the Almighty's 
thunders; a swarthy darkness spread itself over his gigantic 
form; his hands and feet were armed with long talons. . . . 
Over his huge shoulders waved two enormous sable wings; 
and his hair was supplied by living snakes which twined 
themselves with frightful hissings. In one hand he held a 
roll of parchment, and in the other an iron pen. Still the 
lightnings flashed around him and the thunder bursts seemed 
to announce the dissolution of nature. 

Ambrosio is overawed into selling his soul and signs the 
compact with his blood, as per convention. 

The devil doesn't keep to his agreement to release him, 
however, for Lewis tells us that taking his victim to the top 
of a mountain and "darting his talons into the monk's 
shaven crown, he sprang with him from the rock. The 
caves and mountains rang with Ambrosio 's shrieks. The 
demon continued to soar aloft till, reaching a dreadful 
height, he released the sufferer. Headlong fell the monk." 
He plunges to the river's brink, after which a storm is 
evoked by the devil and his body swept away in the flood. 

A similar daemonic manifestation occurs in Zofloya. 
Victoria has been induced to bind herself to the Evil One, 
who has appeared as a Moorish servant of impressive 
personality and special powers. He grants her wishes 
hostile to her enemies, holding many conferences with 
her in the dark forest where he is heralded by flute-like 
sounds. He appears sometimes like a flame, sometimes 
like a lightning flash. He comes with the swiftness of the 



The Gothic Romance 29 

wind and tells her that her thoughts summoned him. 
At last, he announces himself as Satan, and assumes his 
own hideous form of gigantism. 

Behold me as I am, no longer that which I appeared to be, 
but the sworn enemy of all created nature, by men called 
Satan. Yes, it was I that under semblance of the Moor ap- 
peared to thee. 

As he spoke, he grasped more firmly the neck of Victoria, 
with one push he whirled her headlong down the dreadful 
abyss! — as she fell his loud daemonic laugh, his yells of 
triumph echoed in her ears; and a mangled corpse she fell, 
she was received into the foaming waters below. 

The devil is seen in Vathek as a preternaturally ugly 
old man with strange powers. James Hogg has rather a 
penchant for the demon, for he uses him in The Wool- 
Gatherer, and in Confessions of a Justified Sinner, which is 
a story of religious superstition, of the use of diablerie 
and witchcraft, introducing a satanic tempter. On the 
whole, the appearances of the devil in Gothic fiction lack 
impressiveness, are weak in psychologic subtlety, and have 
not the force either of the epic or of the dramatic repre- 
sentations. Nor have they the human appeal that the 
incarnations of the devil in later fiction make to our 
sympathies. 

In addition to the unholy powers possessed by the 
devil and given by him to his agents, the witches, war- 
locks and magicians, we see in Gothic fiction other 
aspects of dasmonology, such as that associated with 
animals and with inanimate objects. Supematuralism 
in the horror novel is by no means confined to human 
beings, but extends to beasts as well. Animals are 
supposed to be peculiarly sensitive to ghostly impressions, 
more so than men, and the appearance of a specter is 
often first announced by the extreme terror of some house- 



30 The Gothic Romance 

hold pet, or other animal. Gothic dogs have very keen 
noses for ghosts and howl lugubriously when an apparition 
approaches. Ravens are represented as showing the 
presence of evil powers, somewhat as the Southern darkey 
believes that the jay-bird is the ally of the devil and 
spends every Friday in torment. And one does not 
forget the snaky coiffure that writhed around the demon's 
head in The Monk. 

Maturin's Alhigenses introduces the story of a gruesome 
loup-garou, or werewolf, which figures extensively in 
folk-tales. In this case the husband of a beautiful young 
woman is a werewolf who during his savage metamor- 
phosis tears her to pieces then disappears to return no 
more. This is suggestive — with a less satisfactory ending 
— of Marie de France's charming little lai, Le Bisclaveret. 
Professor Kittridge has shown the frequency of the were- 
wolf motif in medieval story, by the variants he brings 
together in his Arthur and Gor logon. In The Alhigenses 
a lycanthrope also is described, a hideous human being 
that fancies himself a mad wolf. 

There is much use of animal supematuralism in James 
Hogg's romances. In one,^ Sandy is saved from going 
over a precipice by the warning of a hare that immedi- 
ately after vanishes, having left no tracks in the snow. 
In another, nhe two white beagles that the king uses in 
hunting are in reality maidens bound by enchantment, 
who are forced to slay human beings then transform them 
into deer for the king and his company to eat. The other 
dogs are aware of the unnatural state of affairs, while the 
men are too stupid to realize it. The clownish Croudy is 
changed into a hog, which brings amusing and almost 
tragic complications into his life. His old dog knows him 
and follows him pathetically, and a drove of cows go off 
in a stampede at his approach, for they, too, sense the 

' The Wool-Gatherer. » The Hunt of Eildon. 



The Gothic Romance 31 

supernatural spell. Croudy is put on the block to be 
killed for pork, when the fairy changes him back suddenly 
to the consternation of the butcher. But Croudy does 
not behave well after his transformation, so he is changed 
into a cat with endless life. He may resume mortal shape 
one night in the year and relate his feline experiences. 

In the same story the king of Scotland is proposing a 
toast when his favorite dog dashes the cup from his hand. 
This is repeated several times, till the king learns that the 
drink is poisoned, and the dog has thus by supernatural 
knowledge saved his life. An innocent young girl, sen- 
tenced to death for witchcraft because a fairy has taken 
her form and worked enchantment, and her lover are 
transformed into white birds that fly out of the prison the 
night before the execution and live eternally on the shores 
of a far lake. 

The ghostly power extends to inanimate objects as well 
as to human beings and animals. Armor and costumes 
seem to have a material immortality of their own, for it 
is quite common to recognize spectral visitants by their 
garments or accouterments. Armor clanks audibly in the 
terror scenes. In The Castle of Otranto, the giant ghost 
sends his immense helmet crashing into the hall to 
shatter the would-be-bridegroom and the hopes of his 
father. The head-gear has power of voluntary motion and 
moves around with agility, saves the heroine from danger 
by waving its plumes at the villain and generally adds 
excitement to the scenes. Later a titanic sword leaps 
into place of itself, after having been borne to the entrance 
by a hundred men fainting under the weight of it, while a 
statue of Alfonso sheds three drops of blood from its nose 
and a portrait turns round in its frame and strolls out into 
the open. 

Pictures in general take a lively part in horrific fiction. 
The portrait of a murdered man in The Spirit of the Castle 



32 The Gothic Romance 

picks itself up from the lumber heap where it has been 
thrown, cleans itseh and hangs itself back on the wall, 
while' a portrait in a deserted chamber wags its head 
at a servant who is making the bed. The portrait of 
Melmoth is endowed with supernatural power, for its 
eyes follow the beholder with awful meaning, and as the 
nephew in desperation tears it from its frame and bums it, 
the picture writhes in the flames, ironicaUy, and mocks 
him. This might be compared with Oscar Wilde's 
Picture of Dorian Grey and with other later stories. 

The statue of Alfonso in Walpole's Castle moves from 
its place with no visible means of support, and^ a great 
effigy of black marble is said to "march all round and 
come back into its place again with a great groan." 
In St. Osivyth the soil of the abbey groimds obtained by 
gross injustice is haunted by the ghost of the wronged 
nun who inflicts a curse upon it, rendering it "spell- 
blighted, unprolific, and impossible to till." The key to 
the room in the old house in which Alelmoth's diabolic 
portrait is kept, turns in its lock with a sound like the 
cry of the dead. 

Gothic romance contains magic mirrors wherein one 
can see any person he wishes no matter how distant he 
may be, and watch his movements after the fashion of a 
private moving-picture show,— such as that used by 
Ambrosio.^ There are enchanted wands with power to 
transform men to beasts or vice versa, as in The Hunt of 
Eildon. There are crystal balls that reveal not only what 
is going on in distant parts, but show the future as well. ^ 
The same volume describes magic swords that bear 
changing hieroglyphics to be read only by enchantment 
and other uncanny objects. These will serve to illustrate 
the preternatural powers possessed by inanimate objects 

» In The Spirit of Turrettville. ^ In The Monk. 

• In Arid. -• As in Vathek. 



The Gothic Romance 33 

in the terror literature. In some instances the motif 
is used with effectiveness, definitely heightening the 
impression of the weird in a way that human supernatural- 
ism could not accompHsh. We do not see here the mechan- 
istic supematuralism, which is to become important in 
later tales, and the effects here are crude, yet of interest 
in themselves and as suggesting later uses of the idea. 

Daemonolog}' manifests itself in the supernatural science 
in the Gothic novels as well as in the characterization of 
the devil and his confreres. We have diaboHcal chemistn,- 
besides alchemy, astrolog\', hypnotism, ventriloquism, 
search for the philosopher's stone, infernal biolog}-, and 
the other scientific twists of supematuraHsm. In Vathek, 
where we have a regular array of ghost liness, we see a 
magic potion that instantly cures any disease however 
deadly, — the progenitor of the modem patent medicine. 
There is an Indian magician who writes his messages on 
the high heavens themselves, ^"athek's mother is an 
industrious alchemist strangling an assembly of prominent 
citizens in order to use their cadavers in her laboratory', 
where she stews them up with serpent's oil, mummies, and 
skulls, concocting therefrom a powerful potion. Vathek 
has an uncurbed curiosity that leads him into various 
experiments, to peer into the secrets of astrology, alchemy, 
sorcery, and kindred sciences. He uses a magic drink 
that gives the semblance of death, like that used later in 
The Monk, as earher, of course, in Romeo and Juliet, and 
elsewhere. 

The Moor in Zofloya is well versed in daemonic science. 
He tells of chemical experiments where he forces ever\'- 
one to do his wiU or die. By his potions he can change 
hate into love or love into hate, and can give a drug which 
produces semi-insanit>'. Under the influence of this a man 
weds a daemonic temptress thinking her the woman he 
loves, then commits suicide when he wakes to the truth. 



34 The Gothic Romance 

This reminds us of Sax Rohmer's Fu-Manchu stories of 
diabolic hypodermics that produce insanity. 

In Ankerwich Castle a woman lying at the point of 
death is miraculously cured by a drug whose prescription 
the author neglects to state. In the same story a child 
is branded in a peculiar fashion. A new-born babe 
whose birth must remain secret yet who must be recog- 
nizable in emergency, is marked on its side with letters 
burnt in with a strange chemical, which will remain 
invisible till rubbed with a certain liquid. Matilda in 
The Monk dabbles in satanic chemistry and compounds 
evil potions in her subterranean experiments. 

Mary Shelley uses the idea of supernatural biology in 
her story of the man-monster, Frankenstein, the story of 
the young scientist who after morbid study and experi- 
ment, constructs a human frame of supernatural size 
and hideous grotesqueness and gives it life. But the thing 
created appalls its creator by its dreadful visage, its more 
than human size, its look of less than human intelligence, 
and the student flees in horror from the sight of it. Mrs. 
Shelley describes the emotions of the lonely, tragic thing 
thrust suddenly into a world that ever recoils shuddering 
from it. She reveals the slow hate distilled in its heart 
because of the harsh treatment it meets, till at last it 
takes diabolic revenge, not only on the man who has 
created it but on all held dear by him. The struggles that 
rend his soul between hate and remorse are impressive. 
The wretched being weeps in an agony of grief as it stands 
over the body of Frankenstein whom it has harried to 
death, then goes away to its own doom. The last sight 
of it, as the first, is effective, as, in tragic solitude, tower- 
ing on the ice-floe, it moves toward the desolate North to 
its death. 

In the characterization of this being, as in the unusual 
conception, Mrs. Shelley has introduced something 



The Gothic Romance 35 

poignantly new in fiction. It was a startling theme for 
the mind of a young girl, as were Vathek and The Monk 
for 3^ouths of twenty years, and only the abnormal 
psychological conditions she went through could have pro- 
duced it. There is more curdling awfulness in Franken- 
stein's monster than in the museum of armored 
ghosts, Bleeding Nuns, and accompanying horrors of the 
early Gothic novels. The employment of the Franken- 
stein motif in a play produced recently in New York, ^ 
illustrates anew the vitality of the idea. 

The search for the philosopher's stone appears in various 
novels of the period. St. Leon, by William Godwin, 
relates the story of a man who knew how to produce 
unlimited gold by a secret formula given him by a mysteri- 
ous stranger who dies in his home. Shelley "" brings in this 
power incidentally with the gift of endless life. There is 
an awe-inspiring use of ventriloquism in Charles Brock- 
den Brown's novel, Wieland, while Arthur Mervyn gives 
a study in somnambulism. Zofloya suggests hypnotism 
or mesmerism b}^ saying that A^ictoria's thought sum- 
moned the Moor to her, — that the}^ could have brought 
him had he been "at the further extremity of this terres- 
trial globe." This seems a faint foreshadowing of Ibsen's 
idea in The Master Builder. These may illustrate the use 
of science in Gothicism. 

The elixir of life is brewed in divers Gothic novels. 
Dramatic and intense as are the psychological experiences 
connected with the discovery of the magic potion, the 
effects of the success are more poignant still. The thought 
that endless mortality, life that may not be laid down, 
becomes a burden intolerable has appeared in fiction 
since Swift's account of the Struldbrugs, and perhaps 
before. Godwin's St. Leon is a story of the secret of 
perpetual life. The tiresome Godwinistic hero is visited 

' The Last Laugh. ' In St. Irvyne. 



36 The Gothic Romance 

by a decrepit old man who wishes to tell him on a pledge 
of incommtmicability what will give him the power of 
endless life and boundless wealth. The impoverished 
nobleman accepts with consequences less enjoyable than 
he has anticipated. 

Shelley's hectic romance,^ whose idea, as Shelley ad- 
mitted to Stockdale, came from Godwin's book, uses the 
same theme. The young student with burning eyes, who 
has discovered the elixir of life, may be compared with 
Mary Shelley's later picture of Frankenstein. Events 
are rather confused here, as the villain falls dead in the 
presence of the devil but comes to life again as another 
character later in the story, — Shelley informing us of 
their identity but not troubling to explain it. 

The most impressive instance of the theme of fleshly 
immortality in the early novels is found in Melmoth. 
Here the mysterious wanderer possesses the power of 
endless life, but not the right to lay it down when existence 
becomes a burden. Melmoth can win the boon of death 
only if he can find another mortal willing to change des- 
tinies with him at the price of his soul. He traverses 
the world in his search and offers the exchange to per- 
sons in direst need and suffering the extreme torments, 
offering to give them wealth as well as life eternal. Yet 
no man nor woman will buy life at the price of the 
soul. 

Aids to Gothic Effect. Certain themes appear recur- 
ringly as first aids to terror fiction. Some of them are 
found equally in later literature w^hile others belong more 
particularly to the Gothic. An interesting aspect of the 
supernatural visitants is gigantism, or the superhuman 
size which they assume. In The Castle of Otranto, the sen- 
sational ghost is of enormous size, and his accouterments 
are colossal. In the last scene he is astounding : 

' St. Irvyne or the Rosicrucian. 



The Gothic Romance 37 

A clap of thunder shook the castle to its foundations; the 
earth rocked and the clank of more than mortal armor was 
heard behind. . . . The walls of the castle behind Manfred 
were thrown down with a mighty force, and the form of 
Alfonso, dilated to an immense magnitude, appeared in the 
center of the ruins. "Behold the true heir of Alfonso!" 
said the vision. 

This reminds one of an incident in F. Marion Cra^^^ford's 
Mr. Isaacs, where the Indian magician expands to a-^iul 
size, miraculously draws dow^n a mist and wraps it round 
him as a cloak. Zofioya is frequently spoken of as im- 
mense, and it is said that * * common objects seem to sink 
in his presence." In the last scene the wicked Victoria 
sees the Moor change from a handsome youth to a fierce 
gigantic figure. A diabolic apparition eight or nine feet 
high pursues a monk, ^ and the knight ^ engages in combat 
with a daemonic giant who slays him. The devil in The 
Monk is represented as being of enormous stature, and 
much of the horror excited by the man-monster that 
Frankenstein created arises from the creature's superhu- 
man size. In most cases gigantism connotes evil power 
and rouses a supernatural aw^e in the beholder. The giant is 
an Oriental figure and appears in Vathek, along wdth genii, 
dwarfs, and kindred personages, but the Gothic giant has 
more diabolism than the mere Oriental original. He seems 
to fade out from fiction, appearing only occasionally in 
later stories, w^hile he has practically no place in the drama, 
owing doubtless to the difficulties of stage presentation. 

Insanity as contributing to the effect of supernaturalism 
affords many gruesome studies in psychiatry. Madness 
seems a special curse of the gods or torment from the devil 
and various instances of its use occur in Gothic fiction. 
The devil in Zofloya, at Victoria's request, gives Henrique 

' In The Spirit of the Castle. ' In The Spirit of Turrettvilk. 



38 The Gothic Romance 

an enchanted drug which renders him temporarily insane, 
during which time he marries Victoria, imagining her to be 
Lilla whom he loves. When he awakes to the reaHzation 
of what he has done, real madness drives him to suicide. 
In The Castle of Caithness the wicked misanthrope goes 
mad from remorse. He imagines that the different ones 
he has murdered are hurling him into the pit of hell, until, 
in a maniac frenzy, he dashes his brains out against the 
prison walls. In Ethelwina the father who has sold his 
daughter to dishonor flies shrieking in madness through the 
corridors of the dungeon to escape the sight of his child's 
accusing specter. Poor Nanny in Hogg's Brownie of 
Bodbeck is described as having ' ' a beam of wild delight in 
her eye, the joy of madness. " She sings wild, unearthly 
songs and talks deliriously of incomprehensible things, of 
devilish struggles. 

Melmoth uses the idea with special effectiveness. The 
insanity of the young husband whose bride is mysteriously 
slain on their wedding day by the supernatural power 
accompanying Melmoth, may be compared with the mad- 
ness of the wife in Scott's Bride of Lammermoor . Maturin 
also shows us a scene in a mad-house, where a sane man, 
Stanton, is confined, whom Melmoth visits to offer ex- 
change of destinies. Melmoth taunts him cruelly with his 
hopeless situation and prophecies that he, too, will go mad 
from despair. We hear Stanton's wild cry, echoed by a 
hundred yells like those of demons, but the others are stilled 
when the mad mother begins her lamentation, — the 
mother who has lost husband, home, children, reason, all, 
in the great London fire. At her appalling shrieks all 
other voices are hushed. Another impressive figure in the 
mad-house is the preacher who thinks himself a demon and 
alternately prays and blasphemes the Lord 

Charles Brockden Brown rivals Maturin in his terrible 
use of insanity for supernatural efTect. The demented 



The Gothic Romance 39 

murderer in Edgar Huntley gives an impression of mystery 
and awe that is unusual, while Wieland with its religious 
mania produced by diabolic ventriloquism is even more 
impressive. Brown knew the effect of mystery and dread 
on the human mind and by slow, cumulative suggestion 
he makes us feel a creeping awe that the unwieldy machin- 
ery of pure Gothicism never could achieve. In studies of 
the morbid mentality he has few equals. For psychologic 
subtlety, for haunting horror, what is a crashing helmet or 
a dismembered ghost compared with Brown's Wieland? 
What are the rackings of monkish vindictiveness when set 
against the agonies of an unbalanced mind turned in upon 
itself ? What exterior torture could so appeal to our sym- 
pathies as Wieland's despair, when, racked with religious 
mania, he feels the overwhelming conviction that the 
voice of God — which is but the fiendish trick of a ventrilo- 
quist — is calling him to murder his wife and children as a 
sacrifice to Deity ? Such a tragedy of dethroned reason is 
intolerably powerful ; the dark labyrinths of insanity, the 
gloom-haunted passages of the human mind, are more 
terrible to traverse than the midnight windings of Gothic 
dungeons. We feel that here is a man who is real, who is 
human, and suffering the extremity of anguish. 

Perhaps the most hideous aspect of insanity in the terror 
novel is that of the lycanthrope in The Albigenses. The 
tragic wolf -man imagines himself to be a mad wolf and 
cowers in his lair, glaring with gleaming, awful eyes at all 
who approach him, gnawing at a human head snatched 
from the graveyard. There are various other uses of 
insanity in the novel of the period, but these will serve to 
illustrate. The relation between insanity and the super- 
natural has been marked in later literature. 

The use of portents is a distinct characteristic of the 
horror romance. Calamity is generally preceded by some 



40 The Gothic Romance 

sign of the supernatural influence at work, some present- 
ment of dread. Crime and catastrophe are forefelt by 
premonition of woe and accompaniment of horror. In 
The Accusing Spirit supernatural thunder heralds the 
discovery of the corpse in its winding-sheet, and the monk 
says, **Yes, some dread discovery is at hand. These 
phenomena are miraculous; when the common laws- of 
nature are violated, the awful portents are not sent in 
vain. " In The Romance of the Castle, an anonymous story, 
a woman hears the clock strike two and announces that 
she will be dead at three. 

This night an awful messenger sent from that dread tri- 
bunal from whose power there is no appeal, by signs terrific 
foretold my fate approached — foretold my final moment. 
"Catherine, behold!" was all that issued from the specter's 
lips, but in its hand it held a scroll which fixed my irrevocable 
doom, in letters which fascinated while they appalled my 
sight. 

She keeps her appointment promptly. Her experience 
might be compared with the vision which revealed his date 
of death to Amos Judd in James Mitchell's novel of that 
name, and to the foreknowledge in George Eliot's The 
Lifted Veil. 

In The Spirit of the Castle, ^ the ghost of the old marquis 
knocks three times on the door preceding the arrival of the 
heir, and a black raven flies away as he enters. At the 
approach of the true heir to the estate from which he has 
been kept by fraud in The Old English Baron, the doors of 
the ancient castle fly open, upon which the servants cry, 
' ' The doors open of themselves to receive their master ! ' ' 
When Walpole's usurping Manfred sees the plumage on the 
miraculous casque shaken in concert with the brazen 
trumpet, he exclaims, "What mean these portents? If 

» By W. C. Proby. 



The Gothic Romance 41 

I have offended " At this point the plumes are 

shaken still more strenuously, and the helmet is equally 
agitated when the great sword leaps m. Manfred cries 
to the apparition, "If thou art a true knight, thou wilt 
scorn to employ sorcery to carry thy power. If these 
omens be from heaven or hell, Manfred trusts to righteous- 
ness to protect his cause. " But the omens bring bad luck 
to Manfred. 

There is much use of portent in Melmoth. The specter 
of the Wanderer appearing just before the old man's death 
predicts the spiritual doom of the dying. As the old uncle 
is almost breathing his last, he cries out, "What the devil 
brings you here?" at which the servants cross themselves 
and cry, "The devil in his mouth!" Melmoth, the Wan- 
derer, is a walking portent of evil, for the priest is unable 
to pray in his presence, the communion bread turns viper- 
ous when he is there and the priest falls dead in the attempt 
to exorcise the fiendish power. Mysterious strains of 
music sound as heralds of disaster in several Gothic novels, 
as^ where the inexplicable strains are heard only by the 
bride and groom preceding the strange tragedy that befalls 
them. 

At the approach of a supernatural visitant in the terror 
novel the fire always burns blue, — where there is a fire, 
and the great hearth usually affords ample opportunity for 
such portentous blaze. The thermometer itself tends to 
take a downward path when a ghost draws near. The 
three drops of blood shed from the statue's nose in Otranto, 
while ridiculed by the critics, are meant simply as a portent 
of evil. Prof. William Lyon Phelps points out ^ that the 
idea did not originate with Walpole, but was familiar as 
a superstition regarding premonition of ill, as referred to in 
Dryden's Amboyna, IV., i. This instance may be com- 

* In Melmoth. 

2 In his Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, p. io8. 



42 The Gothic Romance 

pared with the much more skillfully handled omens in 
later drama, as Maeterlinck's and Ibsen's, particularly in 
The Emperor and GaHIea?i. Various other portents of ill 
appear in Gothic fiction. ^ 

The symbols of dread and the ghosth' are used to good 
effect in the terror romance. The cumulative effects of 
supernatural awe are carefully built up by the use of grue- 
some accompaniments and suggestions. The triple veil 
of night, desolation, and silence usually hangs over the 
haunter and the haunted, predisposing to an uncanny psy- 
chosis. The Gothic ghost does not love the garish day, 
and the terror castle, gloomy even under the brightest sim, 
is of unimaginable darkness at night. Certain houses 
add especially to the impression of fear. At crucial mo- 
ments the stroke of twelve or one o'clock is sure to be 
sounded appallingh^ by some abbey bell or castle clock or 
other rusty horologue. In addition to its ser\'ices as time- 
keeper, the bell has a predisposition to toll. 

Melancholy birds fly freely through these medieval tales, 
their dark wings adding to the general gloom. The 
principal specimens in the Gothic aviar\' are the common 
owl, the screech or "screeching" owl, the bat and the 
raven, while the flock is increased by anominous "birds 
of prey," "night birds," "gloomy birds" and so forth. 
In St. Oswyth, as the murderer steals at midnight through 
the corridor toward his helpless victim, * ' the ill-boding bird 
of night that sat screeching on the battlement of the prison 

'Eliza Heywood's romance, Lasselia: or, the Self -Abandoned, shows a 
similar portent, as Dr. George Frisbee Whicher notes in his The Life and 
Romances of Mrs. Eliza Heywood. 

Professor Ashley H. Thomdike, in his Tragedy, in speaking of the plays of 
the Restoration dramatist John Banks (p. 273), says: "Even the portents 
are reduced to a peculiar decorum: — 

"Last night no sooner was I laid to rest 
Than just three drops of blood fell from my nose!" 
These three drops of blood probably have a much more extended history in 
romance and the drama, which it would be interesting to trace out. 



The Gothic Romance 43 

tower, whose harsh, discordant notes were echoed by the 
hoarse croaking of the ominous raven" terrifies but does 
not deter the \'illain. 

The "moping, melancholy screech owl" is one of the 
prominent personages in The Accusing Spirit, emphasizing 
the moments of special suspense, as in St. Osuyth as the 
wicked baron lies quaking in remorse for having caused a 
nun to be buried alive, the condemning ciy- of the doleful 
birds increases his mental anguish. Similar instances, 
with or without special nomenclature, occur in countless 
Gothic novels. Much use is also made of the dark i^y 
in its clambering over medieval architecture, shutting out 
the light and adding to the general gloom. The effect 
of horror is increased frequently by the location of the 
scenes in vaults and graveyards with all their gruesome 
accessories, and skulls are used as mural ornaments else- 
where, or as librar}' appointments by persons of morbid 
temperament. Enough skeletons are exhumed to furnish 
as large a pile of bones as may be seen in certain antique 
churches in Italy and Mexico. 

The element of m^'ster}^ and mystification is another 
family feature of the novel of suspense. There is no 
proper thrill without the suspense attained by super- 
natural myster}-. Even the novels that in the end carefully 
explain away all the ghostly phenomena on a natural basis 
strive with care to build up plots which shall contain 
astounding discoveries. Mrs. Radcliffe and Regina Maria 
Roche are noted in this respect. They have not the 
courage of their ghosts as such but, after they have thrilled 
the reader to the desired extent, the}' tear down the fabric 
of mystification that they have constructed and meticu- 
lously explain everything. 

The black veil constitutes a favorite method of suspense 
with Mrs. Radcliffe. On various occasions Emily pales 



44 The Gothic Romance 

and quivers before a dark velvet pall uncannily swaying 
in the midnight wind, and on one such ramble she draws 
aside the curtain and finds a hideous corpse, putrid and 
dropping to decay, lying on a couch behind the pall. 
Many chapters further on she learns that this is a wax 
figure made to serve as penance for an ancient sinner. 
Again she shivers in front of the inky curtain, watching its 
fold move unaccountably, when a repulsive face peers out 
at her. She shrieks and flees, thinking she has seen a 
ghost, but discovers later that it is only one of a company 
of bandits that have taken up their secret abode in the 
house. Black veils are in fashion in all of Mrs. Radcliffe's 
romances and she drapes them very effectively, while the 
arras waves likewise in other tales as well. 

Mysterious manuscripts are another means of mystifica- 
tion. Mrs. Radcliffe's novels also abound in such scripts. 
In The Romance of the Forest Adeline discovers a decaying 
paper which reads, ' ' Oh, ye, whoever ye are, that chance 
or misfortune may direct to this spot, to you I speak, to 
you reveal the story of my wrongs and ask you to avenge 
them." This injunction to avenge wrongs is a frequent 
assignment, though rather much to ask in most cases. 
The Spirit of the Castle has its dusty document that starts 
off: ''Already my hand brandishes the dagger that shall 
close my eyes forever. (Mysterious manuscripts are not 
strong on grammar and make slight attempt to avoid 
mixed figures.) I will expire by the side of the clay-cold 
corpse of my Antoinette. " In St. Oswyth the paper says, 
"Beneath the deep foundations of the ruin the recorded 
mystery of the house of Oswyth lies buried from all mortal 
discovery." But the most impressive manuscript is the 
one in Melmoth that records the wanderings of the agon- 
ized fate-harried man and those whose tortures he wit- 
nesses. A codicil to the old uncle's will advises his nephew 
against reading the document, but of course he does read 



The Gothic Romance 45 

it, since what are mouldy manuscripts in Gothic novels 
for, but to be deciphered by the hero or heroine? 

Reference to dread secrets occur otherwise than in 
written form. In one favored tale, ^ we are told of "a 
mystery whose elucidation I now have a presentiment 
would fill me with horror!" In another,^ Vincent on his 
death-bed speaks of "a horrid secret which labors at my 
breast, " and the Abate speaks to the marquis of "a secret 
which shall make your blood run cold!" In St. Oswyth 
we hear that *'an impenetrable cloud of cureless sorrow 
hung over Sir Alfred and there was a dreadful mystery in 
his life destiny, unknown, as it should seem, to any one, 
and which he was unwilling should be questioned. " The 
dungeoned prisoner in Bungay Castle cries, "Were I at 
liberty to speak I could a tale unfold would tempt you to 
curse the world and even detest those claims which bind 
man to man. You would be ready to forego the ties of 
nature and shun society. Time must, it will develop the 
whole of this mystery ! " And so on. 

Inexplicable music forms one of the commonest elements 
of mystification in these romances. Its constant recur- 
rence suggests that there must have been victrolas in 
medieval times. The music is chiefly instrumental, some- 
times on a harp, sometimes on a violin, though occasion- 
ally it is vocal. Mrs. Radcliffe and Regina Maria Roche 
accompany the heroine's musings at all hours with doleful 
strains suspected to be of supernatural performance. 
The appearance of the devil masquerading as the Moor^ 
is heralded by flute-like sounds, and in The Spirit of Tur- 
rettville the specter plays on the harp and sings. The 
recurrence of the theme is so constant that it acquires the 
monotony of a tantalizing refrain. 

Groans and wails of unexplained origin also aid in build - 

' Regina Maria Roche's Clermont. 

' A Sicilian Romance, by Mrs. Radcliife. ^ in Zofloya. 



46 The Gothic Romance 

ing up suspense. In fact, a chorus of lugubriousness arises 
so that the Gothic pages groan as they are turned. Mys- 
terious disappearances likewise increase the tension. 
Lights appear and vanish with alarming volition, doors 
open and close with no visible human assistance, and vari- 
ous other supernatural phenomena aid in Gothic mystery 
and mystification. 

Although the ghosts and devils occupy the center of inter- 
est in the horrific romance, the human characters must not 
be lightly passed over. There are terror temperaments as 
well as Gothic castles, tempests, and scenes. The inter- 
fering father or other relative, brutal in threats and breath- 
ing forth slaughter, comes in frequently to oppress the hero 
or heroine into a loathed marriage. The hero is of Rad- 
cliffian gloom, a person of vague past and saturnine temper, 
admired and imitated by Byron. Sir Walter Raleigh,' 
says, "The man that Byron tried to be was the invention 
of ^Irs. Radcliffe. " The officials of the Inquisition and the 
dominant figures in convents and monasteries show fiend- 
ish cruelty toward helpless inmates, gloating in Gothic 
diabolism over their tortures. There are no restful human 
shades of gray, only unrelieved black and white characters. 
The Romantic heroine is a peculiar creature, much given 
to swooning and weeping, yet always impeccably clad in 
no matter w^hat nocturnal emergency she is surprised. 
She tumbles into verse and sketching on slight provocation^ 
but her worst vice is that of curiosity. In her search for 
supernatural horrors she wanders at midnight through 
apartments where she does not belong, breaks open boxes, 
desks, and secret hiding-places to read whatever letters or 
manuscripts she can lay her hands on, behaving generally 
like the yellow journalist of fiction. 

The pages of the Gothic novel are smeared vvith gore 

» In The English Novel, p. 228. 



The Gothic Romance 47 

and turn with ghostly flutter. The conversation is like 
nothing on land or sea or in the waters under the earth, for 
the tadpoles talk like Johnsonian whales and the reader 
grows restless under Godwinistic disquisitions. The au- 
thors are almost totally lacking in a sense of humor, yet 
the Gothic novel, taken as a whole, is one of the best 
specimens of unconscious humor known to English litera- 
ture. 

Conclusion. Perhaps the most valuable contribution 
that the Gothic school made to English literature is Jane 
Austen's inimitable satire of it. Nor thanger Abbey. Though 
written as her first novel and sold in 1797, it did not appear 
till after her death, in 181 8. Its purpose is to ridicule the 
Romanticists and the book in itself would justify the ter- 
roristic school, but she was ahead of her times, so the edi- 
tor feared to publish it. In the meantime she wrote her 
other satires on society and won immortality for her work 
which might never have been begun save for her satiety of 
medieval romances. The title of the story itself is imita- 
tive, and the well-known materials are all present, yet how 
differently employed ! The setting is a Gothic abbey tem- 
pered to modern comfort; the interfering father is not 
vicious, merely ill-natured ; the pursuing, repulsive lover 
is not a villain, only a silly bore. The heroine has no 
beauty, nor does she topple into sonnets nor snatch a 
pencil to sketch the scene, for we are told that she has 
no accomplishments. Yet she goes through palpitating 
adventures mostly modelled on Mrs. Radcliffe's inci- 
dents. vShe is hampered in not being supplied with a 
lover who is the unrecognized heir to vast estates, since 
all the young men in the county are properly provided 
with parents. 

The delicious persiflage in which Jane Austen hits off 
the fiction of the day may be illustrated by a bit of con- 
versation between two young girls. 



48 The Gothic Romance 

"My dearest Catherine, what have you been doing with 
yourself all the morning ? Have you gone on with Udolpho ? ' ' 

*'Yes; I have been reading it ever since I woke, and I have 
got to the black veil." 

"Are you, indeed? How delightful! Oh, I would not tell 
you what is behind that black veil for the world! Are you 
not wild to know?" 

"Oh, yes, quite! What can it be? But do not tell me — I 
would not be told on any account. I know it must be a skele- 
ton; I am sure it is Laurentina's skeleton. Oh, I am delighted 
with the book ! I should like to spend my whole life reading 
it, I assure you. If it had not been to meet 3^ou, I would not 
have come away from it for the world. " 

"Dear creature ! How much obliged I am to you ; and when 
you have finished Udolpho, we will read The Italian together; 
and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same 
kind for you." 

* ' Have you, indeed ? How glad I am ! What are they all ? " 

"I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my 
pocket-book: Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious 
Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, 
Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. These will last 
us some time. " 

"Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid? Are you sure 
they are all horrid?" 

"Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss 
Andrews — a sweet girl, one of the sweetest creatures in the 
world — has read every one of them!'" 

Mr. George Saintsbury' expresses himself as sceptical 
of this list as a catalogue of actual romances, stating that 
he has never read one of them and should like some other 
authority than Miss Andrew-s for their existence. He is 
mistaken in his doubt, however, since during the progress 
of this investigation four out of the eight have been identi- 
fied as to authorship, and doubtless the others are lurk- 

' In his introduction to his pocket volume of Tales of Mystery. 



The Gothic Romance 49 

ing in some antique library. Clermont is by Maria Regina 
Roche; Mysterious Warnings by Mrs. Parsons, in London, 
1796; Midnight Bell by Francis Latham; and Horrid 
Mysteries by Marquis Grosse, London, 1796. 

Jane Austen's stupid bore, John Thorpe, and Mr. 
Tilney, the impeccable, pedantic hero, add their comment 
to Gothic fiction, one saying with a yawn that there hasn't 
been a decent novel since Tom Jones, except The Monk, 
and the other that he read Udolpho in two days with his 
hair standing on end all the time. 

But the real cleverness of the work consists in the bur- 
lesque of Gothic experiences that Catherine, because of 
the excited condition of her mind induced by excess of 
romantic fiction, goes through with on her visit to North- 
anger Abbey. She explores secret wings in a search for 
horrors, only to find sunny rooms, with no imprisoned wife, 
not a single maniac, and never skeleton of tortured nun. 
Mr. Tilney's ironic jests satirize all the elements of Gothic 
romance. Opening a black chest at midnight, she finds 
a yellowed manuscript, but just as she is about to read it 
her candle flickers out. In the morning sunshine she 
finds that it is an old laundry list. The only result of 
her suspicious explorings is that she is caught in such 
prowlings by the young man whose esteem she wishes to 
win. He sarcastically assures her that his father is not 
a wife-murderer, that his mother is not immured in a 
dungeon, but died of a bilious attack. These delicately 
tipped shafts of ridicule riddle the armor of medievalism 
and give it at the same time a permanency of interest 
because of Jane Austen's treatment of it. The Gothic 
novel will be remembered, if for nothing else, for her 
parody of it. 

But Miss Austen is not the only satirist of the genre. 
In The Heroine, Eaton Stannard Barrett gives an amusing 
burlesque of it. It is interesting to note in this connec- 



50 The Gothic Romance 

tion that while Northanger Abbey was written and sold in 
1797 it was not published till 18 18, and Barrett's book, 
while written later, was published in 18 13. 

In the introduction, an epistle, supposed to be endited 
by one Cherubina, says: 

Moon, May i, 1813. 

Know that the moment that a mortal manuscript is written 
in a legible hand and the word End or Finis attached thereto, 
whatever characters happen to be sketched therein acquire 
the quality of creating a soul or spirit which takes flight and 
ascends immediately through the regions of the air till it 
arrives at the moon, where it is embodied and becomes a 
living creature, the precise counterpart of the literary proto- 
type. 

Know farther that all the towns, villages, rivers, hills, and 
valleys of the moon also owe their origin to the descriptions 
which writers give of the landscapes of the earth. 

By means of a book. The Heroine, I became a living inhabi- 
tant of the moon. I met with the Radclyffian and Rochian 
heroines, and others, but they tossed their heads and told me 
pertly that I was a slur on the sisterhood, and some went so 
far as to say that I had a design on their lives. 

Cherry, an unsophisticated country girl, becomes 
Cherubina after reading romantic tales. She decides that 
she is an heiress kept in unwarranted seclusion, and 
tells her father that he cannot possibly be her father since 
he is "a fat, funny farmer." She rummages in his desk 
for private papers, discovering a torn scrap that she 
interprets to her desires. She flies, leaving a note to tell 
the fleshy agriculturist that she is gone "to wander over 
the convex earth in search of her parents," with what 
comic experiences one may imagine. There is much dis- 
cussion of the Gothic heroine, particularly those from Mrs. 
RadclifTe's and Regina Maria Roche's pages. The girl 



The Gothic Romance 51 

sprinkles her letters with verse. She passes through storms, 
explores deserted houses, and comes to what she thinks is 
her ancestral castle in London, but is told that it is Co vent 
Garden Theatre. She decides that she is Nell Gwynne's 
niece and goes to that amiable person to demand all her 
property. She pokes around in the cellar to find her captive 
mother, and discovers an enormously fat woman playing 
with frogs, who drunkenly insists that she is her mother. 
Leaving that place in disgust she takes possession of 
somebody else's castle and orders it furnished in Gothic 
style, according to romance. She has the fat farmer shut 
up in the madhouse. 

The book is very amusing, and a more pronounced 
parody on Gothicism than Northanger Abbey because the 
whole story turns roimd that theme, — but, of course, it is 
not of so great literary value. It seems strange, however, 
that it is so little known. It burlesques every feature of 
terror fiction, the high-flown language, the excited oaths, 
the feudal furniture, the medieval architecture, the Gothic 
weather, the supernatural tempers, the spectral apparitions 
— one of which is so muscular that he struggles with the 
heroine as she locks him in a closet, after throwing rapee 
into his face, which makes him sputter in a mortal fashion. 
Cherubina finds a blade bone of mutton in some Gothic 
garbage and takes it for a bone of an ancestor. Rad- 
cliffian adjectives reel across the pages and the whole 
plays up in a delightful parody the ludicrous weaknesses 
and excesses- of the terror fiction. 

Likewise the Anti-Jacobin parodies the Gothic ghost and 
there is considerable satire directed at the whole Gothic 
genre in Thomas Love Peacock's novel Nightmare Abbey. 

In general, Gothicism had a tonic effect on EngHsh 
literature, and influenced the continental fiction to no 
small degree. By giving an interest and excitement 
gained from ghostly themes to fiction, the terror writers 



52 The Gothic Romance 

made romance popular as it had never been before and 
immensely extended the range of its readers. The novel 
has never lost the hold on popular fancy that the Gothic 
ghost gave to it. This interest has increased through the 
various aspects of Romanticism since then and in every 
period has found some form of supernaturalism on which to 
feed. True, the machinery of Gothicism creaks audibly 
at times, some of the specters move too mechanically, and 
there is a general air of unreality that detracts from the 
effect. The supernaturalism often lacks the naturalness 
which is necessary. Yet it is not fair to apply to these 
early efforts the same standards by which we judge the 
novels of to-day. While their range is narrow they do 
achieve certain impressive effects. Though the class 
became conventionalized to an absurd degree and the 
later examples are laughable, while a host of imitations 
made the type ridiculous, the Gothic novel has an unde- 
niable force. 

Besides the bringing of supernaturalism definitely into 
fiction, which is a distinct gain, we find other benefits as 
well. In Gothicism, if we examine closely, we find the be- 
ginnings of many forms of supernaturalism that are crude 
here, but that are to develop into special power in later 
novels and short stories. The terror novel excites our 
ridicule in some respects, yet, like other things that arouse a 
certain measure of laughter, it has great value. It seems a 
far cry from the perambulating statue in Otranto to Lord 
Dunsany's jade gods that move with measured, stony steps 
to wreak a terrible vengeance on mortals who have defied 
them, but the connection may be clearly enough seen. The 
dreadful experiments by which Frankenstein's monster is 
created are close akin to the revolting vivisections of 
Wells's Dr. Moreau, or the operations described by Arthur 
Machen whereby human beings lose their souls and become 
diabolized, given over utterly to unspeakable evil. The 



The Gothic Romance 53 

psychic elements in Zofloya are crudely conceived, yet 
suggestive of the psychic horrors of the work of Blackwood, 
Barry Pain, and Theodore Dreiser, for example. The 
animal supernaturalism only lightly touched on in Gothic 
novels is to be elaborated in the stories of ghostly beasts 
like those by Edith Wharton, Kipling, Ambrose Bierce, 
and others. In fact, the greater number of the forms of 
the supernatural found in later fiction and the drama are 
discoverable, in germ at least, in Gothic romance. The 
work of this period gave a tremendous impetus to the 
uncanny elements of romanticism and the effect has been 
seen in the fiction and drama and poetry since that time. 
Its influence on the drama of its day may be seen in 
Walpole's Mysterious Mother and Lewis's Castle Specter. 
Thomas Lovell Beddoe's extraordinary tragedy. Death's 
Jest Book, while largely Elizabethan in materials and 
method, is closely related to the Gothic as well. It would 
be impossible to understand or appreciate the supernatural 
in the nineteenth-century literature and that of our own 
day without a knowledge of the Gothic to which most of 
it goes back. Like most beginnings, Gothicism is crude 
in its earlier forms, and conventional in the flood of imi- 
tations that followed the successful attempts. But it is 
really vital and most of the ghostly fiction since that time 
has lineally descended from it rather than from the super- 
naturalism of the epic or of the drama. 



CHAPTER II 
Later Influences 

THE Gothic period marked a change in the vehicle of 
supernaturaHsm. In ancient times the ghostly 
had been expressed in the epic or the drama, in 
medievalism in the romances, metrical and prose, as in 
Elizabethan literature the drama was the specific form. 
But Gothicism brought it over frankly into the novel, 
which was a new thing. That is notew^orthy, since super- 
naturalism seems more closely related to poetry than to 
prose; and as the early dramas were for the most part 
poetic, it did not require such a stretch of the imagination 
to give credence to the unearthly. The ballad, the epic, 
the drama, had made the ghostly seem credible. But 
prose fiction is so much more materialistic that at first 
thought supernaturaHsm seems antagonistic to it. That 
this is not really the case is evidenced from the fact that 
fiction since the terror times has retained the elements of 
awe then introduced, has developed, and has greatly added 
to them. 

With the dying out of the genre definitely known as the 
Gothic novel and the turning of Romanticism into various 
new channels, we might expect to see the disappearance of 
the ghostly element, since it had been overworked in 
terrorism. It is true that the prevailing type of fiction 
for the succeeding period was realism, but with a large 
admixture of the supernormal or supernatural. The super- 

54 



Later Influences 55 

natural machinery had become so well established in prose 
fiction that even realists were moved by it, some using 
the motifs with bantering apology — even Dickens and 
Thackeray, some with rationalistic explanation, but prac- 
tically all using it. Man must and will have the super- 
natural in his fiction. The very elements that one might 
suppose would counteract it, — modern thought, invention, 
science, — serve as feeders to its force. In the inexplicable 
alchemy of literature almost everything turns to the un- 
earthly in some form or other. 

We have seen the various sources from which the Gothic 
novel drew its plots, its motifs for ghostly effect. The 
supernatural fiction following it still had the same sources 
on which to draw, and in addition had various other 
influences and veins of literary inspiration not open to 
Gothicism. Modern science, with the new miracles of its 
laboratories, proved suggestive of countless plots; the new 
study of folk-lore and the scholarly investigations in that 
field unearthed an unguessed wealth of supernatural 
material ; Psychical Research societies with their patient 
and sympathetic records of the forces of the unseen; 
modern vSpiritualism with its attempts to link this world 
to the next ; the wizardry of dreams studied scientifically, 
— all suggested new themes, novel complications, hitherto 
unknown elements continuing the supernatural in fiction. 

With the extension of general reading, and the greater 
range of translations from other languages, the writers of 
England and America were afTected by new influences 
with respect to their use of the supernatural. Their work 
became less insular, wider in its range of subject-matter 
and of technical methods, and in our fiction we find the 
eflect of certain definite outside forces. 

The overlapping influences of the Romantic movement 
in England and America, France and Germany, form an 
interesting but intricate study. It is difficult to point out 



56 Later Influences 

marked points of contact, though the general effect may 
be evident, for literary influences are usually very elusive. 
It is easy to cry, " Lo, here ! lo, there ! ' ' with reference to the 
effect of certain writers on their contemporaries or suc- 
cessors, but it is not always easy to put the finger on any- 
thing very tangible. And even so, that would not explain 
literature. If one could point with absolute certainty 
to the source for every one of Shakespeare's plots, would 
that explain his art? Poe wrote an elaborate essay to 
analyze his processes of composition for The Raven, but the 
poem remains as enigmatic as ever. 

As German Romanticism had been considerably affected 
by the Gothic novel in England, it in turn showed an 
influence on later English and American ghostly fiction. 
Scott was much interested in the German literature treating 
of evil magic, apparitions, castles in ruins, and so forth, 
and one critic says of him that his dealings with subjects 
of this kind are midway between Meinhold and Tieck. 
He was fascinated with the German ballads of the super- 
natural, especially Burger's ghostly Lenore, which he 
translated among others. De Ouincey likewise was a 
student of German literature, though he was not so ac- 
curate in his scholarship as Scott. His horror tale. The 
Avengers, as well as Klosterheim, has a German setting and 
tone. 

There has been some discussion over the question of 
Hawthorne's relation to German Romanticism. Poe 
made the charge that Hawthorne drew his ideas and style 
from Ludwig Tieck, saying in a criticism : 

The fact is, he is not original in any sense. Those who 
speak of him as original mean nothing more than that he 
differs in his manner or tone, and in his choice of subjects, 
from any author of their acquaintance — their acquaintance 
not extending to the German Tieck, whose manner in some 



Later Influences 57 

of his works is absolutely identical with that habitual to Haw- 
thorne. . . . The critic (unacquainted with Tieck) who reads 
a single tale by Hawthorne may be justified in thinking him 
original. 

Various critics have discussed this matter with no very 
definite conclusions. It should be remembered that Poe 
was a famous plagiary-hunter, hence his comments may be 
discounted. Yet Poe knew German, it is thought, and 
in his writings often referred to German literature, while 
Hawthorne, according to his journal, read it with difficulty 
and spoke of his struggles with a volume of Tieck. 

Hawthorne and Tieck do show certain similarities, as in 
the use of the dream element, the employment of the 
allegory as a medium for teaching moral truths, and the 
choice of the legend as a literary form. Both use some- 
what the same dreamy supernaturalism, yet in st3de as in 
subject-matter Hawthorne is much the superior and im- 
proved whatever he may have borrowed from Tieck. 
Hawthorne's vague mystery, cloudy symbolism, and deep 
spiritualism are individual in their effect and give to his 
supernaturalism an unearthly charm scarcely found else- 
where. Hawthorne's theme in The Marble Faun, of the at- 
taining to a soul by human suffering, is akin to the idea in 
Fouque's Undine. There the supernaturalism is franker, 
while that of Hawthorne's novel is more evasive and deli- 
cate, yet the same suggestion is present in each case. 
Low^ell in his Fable for Critics speaks of Hawthorne as 
*'a John Bunyan Fouque, a Puritan Tieck. " 

There are still more striking similarities to be pointed 
out between the work of Poe and that of E. T. A. Hoff- 
mann. As Hawthorne was, to a slight extent, at least, 
affected by German legends and wonder tales, Poe was 
influenced by Hoffmann's horror stories. Poe has been 
called a Germanic dreamer, and various German and 



58 Later Influences 

English critics mention the debt that he owes to Hoffmann. 
Mr. Palmer Cobb' brings out some interesting facts in 
connection with the two romanticists. He says: 

The verification of Poe's indebtedness to German is to be 
sought in the similarity of the treatment of the same motives 
in the work of both authors. The most convincing evi- 
dence is furnished by the way in which Poe has combined 
the themes of mesmerism, metempsychosis, dual existence, the 
dream element, and so forth, in exact agreement with the 
grouping employed by Hoffmann. Notable examples of this 
are the employment of the idea of double existence in conjunc- 
tion with the struggle of good and evil forces in the soul of the 
individual, and the combination of mesmerism and metem- 
psychosis as leading motives in one and the same story. 

Mr. Cobb points out in detail the similarities between 
Poe's stories of dual personality and the German use of the 
theme as found in Fouque, Novalis, and Hoffmann, particu- 
larly the last. Hoffmann's exaggerated use of this idea 
is to be explained on the ground that he was obsessed by 
the thought that his double was haunting him, and he, 
like Maupassant under similar conditions of mind, wrote 
of supernaturalism associated with madness. Hoffmann 
uses the theme of double personality. ^ In Poe's William 
Wilson the other self is the embodiment of good, a sort of 
incarnate conscience, as in Stevenson's Markheim, while 
Hoffmann's Elixiere represents the evil. Poe has here 
reversed the idea. In Hoffmann's Magnetiseur we find 
the treatment of hypnotism and metempsychosis and the 
dream-supematuralism in the same combination that Poe 
uses. 3 Hoffmann 4 and Poe^ relate the story of a supema- 

' The Influence of E. T. A. Hoffmann on Edgar Allan Poe. 

' In the Doppelganger, Kater Murr, and Elixihre des Teufels. 

3 In his Tale of the Ragged Mountains. 

* In Die Jesuit-kirche in G. s In The Oval Portrait. 



Later Influences 59 

tural portrait, where the wife-model dies as the sacrifice 
to the painting. 

Both Hoffmann and Poe use the grotesquerie of super- 
naturaUsm, the fantastic element of horror that adds to 
the effect of the ghostly. Even the generic titles are almost 
identical. ' But in spite of these similarities in theme and 
in grouping, there is no basis for a charge that Poe owes 
a stylistic debt to Hoffmann. In his manner he is original 
and individual. He uses his themes with much greater 
art, with more dramatic and powerful effect than his 
German contemporary. Though he employs fewer of the 
crude machineries of the supernatural, his ghostly tales 
are more unearthly than Hoffmann's. His horrors have a 
more awful effect because he is an incomparably greater 
artist. He knows the economy of thrills as few have done. 
His is the genius of compression, of suggestion. His dream 
elements, for instance, though Hoffmann uses the dream 
to as great extent as Poe — are more poignant, more un- 
bearable. 

The cult of horror in German literature, as evidenced in 
the work of Hoffmann, Kleist, Tieck, Arnim, Fouque, 
Chamisso, had an influence on English and American 
Hterature of supematuralism in general. The grotesque 
diablerie, the use of dream elements, magnetism, metem- 
psychosis, ghosts, the elixir of life — which theme appears 
to have a literary elixir of life — are reflected to a certain 
degree in the English ghostly tales of the generation fol- 
lowing the Gothic romance. 

A French influence is likewise manifest in the later 
English fiction. The Gothic novel had made itself felt in 
France as well as in Germany, a proof of which is the fact 
that Balzac was so impressed by Maturin's novel that he 
wrote a sequel to it.^ The interrelations of the English, 

' Compare Poe's definition of his type as phantasy pieces with Hoffmann's 
title Phantasie Stucke. ' Melmoth Reconcilie, 



6o Later Influences 

French, and German supernatural literature are nowhere 
better illustrated than in the work of Balzac. He admits 
Hoffmann's inspiration of his Elixir oj Life, that horrible 
story of reanimation, where the head is restored to life 
and youth but the body remains that of an old man, dead 
and decaying, from which the head tears itself loose in the 
church and bites the abbot to the brain, shrieking out, 
' ' Idiot, tell me now if there is a God ! ' ' Balzac's influence 
over Bulwer-Lytton is seen in such stories as The Haunters 
and the Haunted, or the House and the Brain, and A Strange 
Story, in each of which the theme of supernaturally con- 
tinued life is used. Balzac's Magic Skin is a symbolic 
story of supernaturalism that suggests Hawthorne's 
allegoric symbolism and may have influenced it in part. 
It is a new application of the old theme, used often in the 
drama as in Gothic romance, of the pledge of a soul for 
earthly gratification. A magic skin gives the man his 
heart's desires, yet each granted wish makes the talisman 
shrink perceptibly, with an inexorable decrease. This 
theme, symbolic of the truth of life, is such a spiritual idea 
used allegorically as Hawthorne chose frequently and 
doubtless influenced Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Grey. 
Balzac's Unknown Masterpiece is another example of his 
supernaturalism that has had its suggestive effect on 
English ghostly fictions. 

Guy de Maupassant has doubtless influenced English 
tales of horror more than any foreign writer since Hoff- 
mann. As a stylist he exercised a definite and strong influ- 
ence over the short-story form, condensing it, making it 
more economical, more like a fatal bullet that goes straight 
to the mark, and putting into a few hundred words a story 
of supernatural horror relentless in its effect. O. Henry's 
delicately perfect ghost story, The Furnished Room, is 
reminiscent of Maupassant's technique as seen in The 
Ghost. And surely F. Marion Crawford's Screaming Skull 



Later Influences 6i 

and Ambrose Bierce's Middle Toe of the Right Foot are 
from the same body as Maupassant's Hand. What a 
terrible corpus it must be! There is the same gruesome 
mystery, the same implacable horror in each story of a 
mutilated ghost. 

Maupassant's stories of madness, akin to Poe's analyses 
of mental decay, of the slow corruption of the brain, are 
among his most dreadful triumphs of style, and have 
influenced various English stories of insanity. In Mau- 
passant's own tottering reason we find the tragic explana- 
tion of his constant return to this type of story. Such 
tales as Mad, where a husband goes insane from doubt of 
his wife; Madness, where a man has a weird power over 
human beings, animals, and even inanimate objects, mak- 
ing them do his will, so that he is terrified of his own self, 
of what his horrible hands may do mechanically; Cocotte, 
where the drowned dog, following its master a hundred 
miles down the river, drives him insane; The Tress, a 
curdling story of the relation between insanity and the 
supernatural, so that one is unable to say which is cause 
and which effect, illustrate Maupassant's unusual as- 
sociation between madness and uncanny fiction. Who 
but Maupassant could make a story of ghastly hideousness 
out of a parrot that swears? As Maupassant was influ- 
enced by Poe, in both subject matter and technique, so 
he has affected the English writers since his time in both 
plot material and treatment of the supernatural. And 
as his La Horla strongly reflects Fitzjames O'Brien's 
What Was It ? A Mystery that anticipated it by a number 
of years, so it left its inevitable impress on Bierce's The 
Damned Thing and succeeding stories of supernatural in- 
visibility. A recent story by Katherine Fullerton Gerould, 
Louquier's Third Act, seems clearly to indicate the De 
Maupassant influence, reflecting the method and motifs 
of La Horla and The Coward. Maupassant's tales have a 



62 Later Influences 

peculiar horror possessed by few, partly because of his 
undoubted genius and partly the result of his increasing 
madness. 

Other French writers have also influenced the uncanny 
story in English. Theophile Gautier has undoubtedly 
inspired various tales, such as The Mummy s Foot, by 
Jessie Adelaide Weston, which is the match, though not 
in beauty or form, to his' little masterpiece of that title. 
A. Conan Doyle's Lot No. 24Q, a horrible story of a re- 
animated mummy, bears an unquestionable resemblance 
to Gautier 's The Romance of the Mummy as well as The 
Mummy's Foot, though Poe's A Word with a Mummy, a 
fantastic story emphasizing the science of miraculous 
embalming of living persons so that they would wake to 
life after thousands of years, preceded it. Something of 
the same theme is also used by F. Marion Crawford, ^ 
where the bodies in the old studio awake to menacing life. 
This motif illustrates the prevalence of the Oriental 
material in recent English fiction. Gautier' s La Morte 
Amour euse has exercised suggestive power over later tales, 
such as Crawford's vampire story,'' though it is significant 
to recall that Poe's Berenice preceded Gautier's story by a 
year, and the latter must have known Poe's work. 

The fiction of Erckmann-Chatrian appears to have sug- 
gested various English stories. The Owl's Ear obviously 
inspired another,^ both being records of supernatural 
acoustics the latter dealing with spiritual sounds. The 
Invisible Eye, a fearsome story of hypnotism, has an 
evident parental claim on Algernon Blackwood's story, ^ 
though the latter is psychically more gruesome. The 
Waters of Death, an account of a loathsome, enchanted 
crab, suggests H. G. Wells's story of the plant vampire. ^ 

' In Khaled. ' For the Blood Is the Life. 

3 The Spider's Eye, by Lucretia P. Hale. 

* With Intent to Steal. s The Flowering of the Strange Orchid. 



Later Influences 63 

Likewise Anatole France's Putois, the narrative of the 
man who came to have an actual existence because some- 
one spoke of him as an imaginary person, is associated 
with the drolleries of supernaturalism, such as are used 
by Thomas Bailey Aldrich in the story of an imagined per- 
son, Miss MehitaheVs Son, and by Frank R. Stockton.' 
Anatole France has several delicately wrought idylls of 
the supernatural, as The Mass of Shadows, where the 
ghosts of those who have sinned for love may meet 
once a year to be reunited with their loved ones, and 
in the church, with clasped hands, celebrate the spectral 
mass, or such tender miracles as The Juggler of Notre 
Dame, where the juggler throws his balls before the altar 
as an act of worship and is rewarded by a sight of the 
Virgin, or Scholasticus , a symbolic story much like one 
written years earlier by Thomas Bailey Aldrich, ^ where a 
plant miraculously springs from the heart of a dead woman. 
Amycus and Celestine, the story of the faun and the hermit, 
of whom he tells us that ' * the hermit is a faun borne down 
by the years ' ' is suggestive of the wonderful little stories of 
Lord Dunsany. Lord Dunsany, while startlingly original 
in most respects, seems a bit influenced by Anatole France. 
His When the Gods Slept seems reminiscent of The Isle 
of the Penguins. In France's satire the gods change pen- 
guins into men whose souls will be lost, because the priest 
has baptized them by mistake, while in Dunsany's story 
the baboons pray to the Yogis, who promise to make them 
men in return for their devotion. 

And the baboons arose from worshipping, smoother about 
the face and a little shorter in the arms, and went away and 
hid themselves in clothing and herded with men. And men 
could not discern what they were for their bodies were bodies 

^ In The Transferred Ghost and The Spectral Mortgage. 
' Phe Antoine's Date Palm. 



64 Later Influences 

of men though their souls were still the souls of beasts and 
the worship went to the Yogis, spirits of ill. 

Maeterlinck, influenced by his fellow-Belgian, Charles 
Van Lerberghe, whose Flaireurs appeared before Maeter- 
linck's plays of the uncanny and to whom he acknowledges 
his indebtedness, has strongly affected ghostly literature 
since his rise to recognition. In his plays we find an at- 
mospheric supernaturalism. The settings are of earth, 
yet with an unearthly strangeness, with no impression of 
realism, of the familiar, the known. In Maeterlinck's 
plays we never breathe the air of actuality, never feel the 
footing of solid earth, as we always do in Shakespeare, 
even in the presence of ghosts or witches. Shakespeare's 
visitants are ghostly enough, certainly, but the scenes in 
which they appear are real, are normal, while in the Bel- 
gian's work there is a fluidic supernaturalism that trans- 
forms everything to unreality. We feel the grip of fate, 
as in the ancient Greek tragedies, the inescapable calamity 
that approaches with swift, silent pace. Yet Maeter- 
linck's is essentially static drama. There is very little 
action, among the human beings, at least, for Fate is the 
active agent. In The Blind, The Intruder, and Interior the 
elements are much the same, the effects wrought out with 
the same unearthly manner. But in Joyzelle, which shows 
a certain similarit}^ to Midsummer Night's Dream and The 
Tempest, we have a different type of supernaturalism, the 
use of enchantment, of fairy magic that comes to a close 
happily. In the dream-drama' there is a mixture of 
reahsm and poetic symboHsm, the use of the dream as a 
vehicle for the supernormal, and many aspects of the weird 
combined in a fairy play of exquisite symbolism. 

The influence of Maeterlinck is apparent in the work of 
English writers, particularly of the Celtic school. W. B. 

* The Blue Bird. 



Later Influences 65 

Yeats's fairy play, The Land oj Heart's Desire, with its 
pathetic beauty, Countess Cathleen, his tragedy of the 
countess who sells her soul to the devil that her people 
may be freed from his power, as well as his stories, show 
the traces of Maeterlinck's methods. William Sharp, in 
his sketches and his brief plays in the volume called Vistas^ 
reflects the Belgian's technique slightly, though with his 
own individual power. Sharp's other literary self, Fiona 
McLeod, likewise shows his influence, as does Synge in 
his Riders to the Sea, and Gordon Bottomley in his 
Crier by Night, that eerie tragedy of an unseen power. 
Maeterlinck's supernaturalism seems to suggest the poetry 
of Coleridge, with its elusive, intangible ghostliness. The 
effect of naivete observable in Coleridge's work is in 
Maeterlinck produced by a child-like simplicity of style, 
a monosyllabic dialogue, and a monotonous, unreasoning 
repetition that is at once real and unreal. The dramatist 
has brought over from the poet the same suggestive use of 
portents and symbols for prefiguring death or disaster that 
lurks just outside. The ghostliness is subtle, rather than 
evident, the drama static rather than dynamic. 

Ibsen, also, has strongly influenced the supernatural in 
both our drama and our fiction. His own work has a 
certain kinship with that of Hawthorne, showing a like 
symbolism and mysticism, a like transfusion of the unreal 
with the natural, so that one scarcely knows just how far 
he means our acceptance of the unearthly to extend. He 
leaves it in some cases an open question, while in others he 
frankly introduces the supernatural. The child's vision 
of the dead heroes riding to Valhalla, with his own mother 
who has killed herself, leading them, ' the ghost that tries to 
make an unholy pact with the king, ^ the apparition and the 
supernatural voice crying out "He is the God of Love!"^ 

' In The Vikings of Helgeland. ' In The Pretenders. 

3 In Brand. 



66 Later Influences 

illustrate Ibsen's earlier methods. The curious, almost 
inexplicable Peer Gynt, with its mixture of folk-lore and 
symbolism, its ironic laughter and satiric seriousness, 
seems to have had a suggestive influence on other works, 
such as Countess Eie, ' where the personification of tempta- 
tion in the form of committed sin reflects Ibsen's idea of 
Peer Gynt's imaginary children. The uncanny power of 
unspoken thought, the haunting force of ideas rather than 
the crude visible phantasms of the dead, as in the tele- 
pathy, or hypnotism, or what you will, in The Master 
Builder, the evasive, intangible haunting of the living by 
the dead as in Rosmersholm, the strange powers at work 
as in The Lady from the Sea, have had effect on the nu- 
merous psychic dramas and stories in English. The sym- 
bolic mysticism in Emperor and Galilean, showing the 
spirits of Cain and of Judas, with their sad ignorance of 
life's riddles, the vision of Christ in person, with His un- 
ceasing power over men's souls, foreshadowed the plays 
and stories bringing in the personality of Christ, as The 
Servant in the House,' and The Passing of the Third Floor 
Back. 

Modern Italian literature, as represented by Fogazzaro 
and D'Annunzio, introduces the ghostly in fiction and 
in the drama, and has had its effect on our literature. 
Fogazzaro' s novels are essentially realistic in pattern, yet 
he uses the supernatural in them, as in miraculous visions, ^ 
and metempsychosis and madness associated with the 
supernatural.^ D'Annunzio's handling of the unearthly 
is more repulsive, more psychically gruesome, as the 
malignant power of the ancient curse in La Cittd Morta, 
where the undying evil in an old tomb causes such 
revolting horror in the action of the play. This has a coun- 
terpart in a story, 4 by Josephine Daskam Bacon, where a 

^ By J. H. Shorthouse. ' In The Sinner and The Saint. 

3 In The Woman. * The Unhuried. 



Later Influences 67 

packet of letters from two evil lovers lie buried in a hearth 
and by their subtle influence corrupt the soul of every 
woman who occupies the room. D'Annunzio uses the witch 
motive powerfully, ' madness that borders on the super- 
natural, ^ and the idea of evil magic exorcised by melting 
an image of wax to cause an enemy's death ^ which suggests 
Rossetti's poem using that incident, the unforgettable 
Sister Helen. 

Likewise a new force in the work of the Russian school 
has affected our fiction of the ghostly in recent years. 
Russian literature is a new field of thought for English 
people, since it is only of late years that translations have 
been easily accessible, and, because of the extreme diffi- 
culty of the language, very few outsiders read Russian. 
As German Romanticism began to have its definite power 
over English supernatural fiction in the early part of the 
nineteenth century by the extension of interest in and 
study of German literature, and the more frequent trans- 
lation of German works, so in this generation Russian 
literature has been introduced to English people and is 
having its influence. 

A primitive, still savage race like the Russians naturally 
shows a special fondness for the supernatural. Despite 
the fact that literature is written for the higher classes, a 
large peasant body, illiterate and superstitious, will in- 
fluence the national fiction. In the Russian works best 
known to us there is a large element of the uncanny, of 
a type in some respects different from that of any other 
country. Like the Russian national character, it is harsh, 
brutal, violent, yet sentimental. One singular thing to 
be noted about it is the peculiar combination of superna- 
turalism with absolute realism. The revolting yet dread- 
fully effective realism of the Russian Hterature is never 

' In The Daughter of Jorio. * In Sogno d'un Mattino di Primavera. 

3 In Sogno d'un Tramonto d'Autunno. 



68 Later Influences 

more impressive than in its union with ghostly horror, 
which makes the impossible appear indubitable. In 
Gogol's The Cloak, for instance, the fidelity to homely de- 
tails of life, the descriptions of pinching poverty, of tragic 
hopes that waited so long for fulfillment, are painful in 
themselves and give verisimilitude to the element of the 
unearthly that follows. You feel that a poor Russian clerk 
who had stinted himself from necessity all his life would 
come back from the dead to claim his stolen property and 
demand redress. The supernatural gains a new power, a 
more tremendous thrill when set off against the every-day- 
ness of sordid life. We find something of the same effect 
in the stories of Algernon Blackwood and Ambrose Bierce 
and F. Marion Crawford. 

Tolstoi's symbolic story of Ivan the Fool is an impressive 
utterance of his views of life, expressed by the allegory of 
man's folly and wisdom and the schemes of devils. 

Turgeniev's pronounced strain of the unearthly has had 
its influence on English fiction. He uses the dream ele- 
ments to a marked degree, as in The Song of Love Tri- 
umphant, a story of Oriental magic employed through 
dreams and music, and The Dream, an account of a 
son's revelatory visions of his unknown father. The 
dream element has been used considerably in our late 
fiction, some of which seems to reflect Turgeniev. Another 
motive that he uses effectively is that of suggested vampir- 
ism, ^ and of psychical vampirism, ^ where a young man is 
"set upon" by the spirit of a dead woman he has scarcely 
known, till he dies under the torment. This seems to have 
affected such stories as that of psychical vampirism in The 
Vampire, by Reginald Hodder. We find in much of 
Turgeniev's prose the symbolic, mystical supematuralism 
besides his use of dreams, visions, and a distinct Oriental 
element. In Knock! Knock! Knock! the treatment of 

' As in Phantoms. ^ As in Clara Militch. 



Later Influences 69 

whose spiritualism reminds one somewhat of Browning's,^ 
in its initial skepticism and later hesitation, the final effect 
of which is to impress one with a sense of supernaturalism 
working extraordinarily through natural means, so that it 
is more powerful than the mere conventional ghostly 
could be, we see what may have been the inspiration for 
certain spiritualistic novels and stories in English. The 
same tone is felt in Hamlin Garland's treatment of the 
subject, for instance. The mystical romanticism of 
Turgeniev is less brutally Russian than that of most 
of his compeers. 

Like Maupassant and Hoffman and Poe, the Russian 
writers use to a considerable extent the association be- 
tween insanity and the supernatural to heighten the 
effect of both. They may have been influenced in this 
by Poe's studies of madness, as by Maupassant's, and they 
appear to have an influence over certain present-day 
writers. It would be difficult to say which is the stronger 
influence in the treatment of abnormal persons, Maupas- 
sant or the Russian writers. One wonders what type of 
mania obsesses certain of the Russian fictionists of to-day, 
for surely they cannot be normal persons. Examples of 
such fiction are: Alexander Pushkin's story of mocking 
madness resulting from a passion for cards, whose ghostly 
motif has a sardonic diabolism,^ Tchekhoff's story of 
abnormal horror, ^ a racking account of insanity,'' and 
The Black Monk, a weird story of insanity brought on by 
the vision of a supernatural being, a replicaed mirage of 
a black monk a thousand years old. But it is in the work 
of Leonidas Andreyev that we get the ultimate anguish of 
madness. The Red Laugh, an analysis of the madness 
of war, of the insanity of nations as of individuals, seems 
to envelop the world in a sheet of flame. Its horrors go be- 

* In Sludge, the Medium, * The Queen of Spades. 

3 Sleepyhead. 4 Ward No. 6. 



70 Later Influences 

yond words and the brain reels in reading. There are in 
English a niimber of stories of insanity associated with the 
supernatural which may have been influenced by the 
Russian method, though Ambrose Bierce's studies in the 
abnormality of soldier life preceded Andreyev by years. 
F. Marion Crawford's The Dead Smile and various stories 
of Arthur Machen have a Russian horror, and other 
instances might be mentioned. 

The Russian fiction with its impersonality of pessimism, 
its racial gloom, its terrible sordid realism forming a basis 
for awesome supernaturaHsm, is of a type foreign to our 
thought, yet, as is not infrequently the case, the radically 
different has a strange appeal, and the effect of it on our 
stories of horror is imdoubted. English and American 
readers are greatly interested in Russian literature just 
now and find a peculiar relish in its terrors, though the 
harsher elements are somewhat softened in transference 
to our language. 

Other fields of thought have been opened to us within 
this generation by the widening of our knowledge of 
the literature of other European countries. Books are 
much more freely translated now than formerly and no 
person need be ignorant of the fiction of other lands. 
From the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Chinese, Japanese, 
and other tongues we are receiving stories of supernatural- 
ism that give us new ideas, new points of view. The 
greater ease of travel, the opportunity to study once- 
distant lands and literatures have been reflected in our 
fiction. Some one should write a monograph on the 
literary influence of Cook's tours! Our later work has 
a strong touch of the Oriental, — not an entirely new 
thing, since we find it in Beckford's Vathek and the pre- 
Gothic tales of John Hawkesworth, — but more noticeable 
now. Examples are Stevenson's New Arabian Nights, 
Bottle Imp, and others, F. Marion Crawford's Khaled 



Later Influences 71 

and Mr. Isaacs, Blackwood's stories of Elementals, 
George Meredith's fantasy, The Shaving of Shagpat, 
though many others might be named. The Oriental 
fiction permits the use of magic, sorcery, and various ele- 
ments that seem out of place in ordinary fiction. The 
popularity of Kipling's tales of Indian native life and 
character illustrates our fondness for this aspect of super- 
naturalism. 

Apart from the foreign influences that affect it we notice 
a certain change in the materials and methods of ghostly 
fiction in English. New elements had entered into 
Gothic tales as an advance over the ear Her forms, yet con- 
ventions had grown up so that even such evasive and elu- 
sive personalities as ghosts were hidebound by precedent. 
While the decline of the genre definitely known as the 
Gothic novel in no sense put an end to the supernatural 
in English fiction, it did mark a difference in manner. 
The Gothic ghosts were more elementary in their nature, 
more superficial, than those of later times. Life was, 
in the days of Walpole and Mrs. Radcliffe, more local 
because of the limitations of travel and communication, 
it being considered astounding in Gothic times that a ghost 
could travel a thousand miles with ease while mortals 
moved snail-like. Scientific investigation was crude com- 
pared with the present and had not greatly touched 
fiction. Scientific folk-lore investigations were as un- 
known as societies of psychical research, hence neither 
had aided in the writing of ghostly fiction. 

The mass of ghostly stuff which has appeared in English 
since the Gothic period, and which will be classified and 
discussed under different motifs in succeeding chapters, 
shows many of the same characteristics of the earlier, 
yet exhibits also a decided development over primitive, 
classical and Gothic forms. The modem supematuralism 
is more complex, more psychological than the terroristic, 



72 Later Influences 

perhaps because nowadays man is more intellectual, his 
thought-processes more subtle. Humanity still wants 
ghosts, as ever, but they must be more cleverly presented 
to be convincing. The ghostly thrill is as ardently de- 
sired by the reading pubHc, as eagerly striven for by the 
writers as ever, though it is more difficult of achievement 
now than formerly. Yet when it is attained it is more 
poignant and lasting in its effects because more subtle in 
its art. The apparition that eludes analysis haunts the 
memory more than do the comparatively simple forms of 
the past. Compare, for instance, the spirits evoked by 
Henry James and Katherine FuUerton Gerould with the 
crude clap-trap of cloistered spooks and armored knights 
of Gothic times. How cheap and melodramatic the 
earlier attempts seem ! 

The present-day ghost is at once less terrible and more 
terrible than those of the past. There is not so much a 
sense of physical fear now, as of psychic horror. The 
pallid specters that glide through antique castles are 
ineffectual compared with the maleficent psychic invasions 
of modernity. On the other hand, the recent ghostly 
story frequently shows a strong sense of humor unknown 
in Gothicism, and only suggested in earlier forms, as in 
the elder Pliny's statement that ghosts would not visit a 
person afflicted with freckles, which shows at least a 
germinal joviality in classical spooks. 

One feature that distinguishes the uncanny tales of 
to-day from the Gothic is their greater range of material. 
The early terror story had its source in popular super- 
stition, classical literature, medieval legends, or the 
Elizabethan drama, while in the century that has elapsed 
since the decay of the Gothic novel as such, new fields of 
thought have been opened up, and new sources for ghostly 
plots have been discovered which the writers of modern 
stories are quick to utilize. Present-day science with its 



Later Influences 73 

wonderful development has provided countless plots for 
supernatural stories. Comparative study of folk-lore, 
with the activities of the numerous associations, has 
brought to light fascinating material. Modern Spiritual- 
ism, with its seances, its mediumistic experiments, has 
inspired many novels and stories. The Psychical Re- 
search Society, with branches in various parts of the 
world and its earnest advocates and serious investigations, 
has collected suggestive stuff for many ghostly stories. 
The different sources for plot material and mechanics 
for awesome effect, added to these from which the terror 
novel drew its inspiration, have incalculably enriched 
the supernatural fiction and widened the limits far beyond 
the restrictions of the conventionalized Gothic. 

Science has furnished themes for many modern stories 
of the supernatural. Modern science itself, under normal 
conditions, seems like necromancer's magic, so its incur- 
sion into thrilling fiction is but natural. Every aspect 
of research and discovery has had its exponent in fictive 
form, and the skill with which the material is handled 
constitutes one point of difference between the present 
ghostly stories and the crude scientific supematuralism 
of the early novels. The influence of Darwin, Spencer, 
Huxley, and other scientists of the last century did much 
to quicken fiction as well as thought, and the effects can 
be traced in the work of various authors. 

The widespread interest in folk-lore in recent years 
has had an appreciable influence on the stories of the 
supernatural. While the methods of investigation fol- 
lowed by the serious students of folk-lore are scientific 
and the results are tabulated in an analytic rather than a 
literary style, yet the effect is helpful to fiction. Com- 
parative studies in folk-lore, by the bringing together of a 
mass of material from diverse sources, establishes the fact 
of the universal acceptance of supematuralism in some 



74 Later Influences 

form. Ethnic superstitions vary, yet there is enough 
similarity between the ideas held by tribes and races so 
widely separated as to discredit any basis of imitation or 
conscious influence between them, to be of great interest 
to scientists. No tribe, however low in the social scale, 
has been found that has no belief in powers beyond the 
mortal. 

Folk-lore associations are multiplying and the students 
of literature and anthropology are joining forces in the 
effort to discover and classify the variant superstitions 
and legends of the past and of the races and tribes still in 
their childhood. Such activities are bringing to light a 
fascinating wealth of material from which the writers of 
ghostly tales may find countless plots. Such studies 
show how close akin the world is after all. A large 
number of books relating stories of brownies, bogles, 
fairies, banshees, wraiths, hobgoblins, witches, vampires, 
ghouls, and other superhuman personages have appeared. 
I am not including in this list the fairy stories that are 
written for juvenile consumption, but merely the folk- 
loristic or literary versions for adults. 

The most marked instance of the influence of folk-lore 
in supplying subject matter for literature is shown in the 
recent Celtic revival. The supernatural elements in the 
folk-tales of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have been 
widely used in fiction, poetry, and the drama. In this 
connection one is reminded of Collins 's Ode on the Popular 
Superstitions of the Highlands Considered as the Subject 
for Poetry. The Irish National School, with W. B. Yeats, 
John Synge, and Lady Gregory as leaders, have made the 
folk-tales of Ireland live in literature and the ghostly 
thrill of the old legends comes down to us undiminished. 
Lord Dunsany's work is particularly brilliant, going back 
to ancient times and re-creating the mythologic beings for 
us, making us friendly with the gods, the centaurs, the 



Later Influences 75 

giants, and divers other long-forgotten characters. Kipling 
has made the lore of the Indian towns and jungles live for 
us, as Joel Chandler Harris has immortalized the legends 
of the southern negro. Thomas A. Janvier in his tales 
of old Mexico calls back the ghosts of Spanish conquerors 
and Aztec men and women, repeopling the ancient streets 
with courtly specters. The fondness for folk-loristic 
fiction is one of the marked aspects of Romanticism at 
the present time. 

The activities of the Society- for P5\'chical Research 
have had decided effect in stimulating ghostly stories. 
When so many inteUigent persons turn their attention 
to finding and classif}'ing supernatural phenomena the 
currents of thought thus set up will naturally influence 
fiction. Nowadays ever\' interest known to man is 
reflected in literature. The proceedings of the associa- 
tion have been so widely advertised and so open to the 
pubHc that persons who would not otherwise give thought 
to the supernatural have considered the matter. Such 
thinkers as W. T. Stead and Sir OHver Lodge, to mention 
only two, would inevitably influence others. In this 
connection it is interesting to note the recent claims by 
Stead's daughter that her father has commimicated 
with the H\'ing, and Lodge's book, just published, Ray- 
mond, or Life and Death, that gives proof of what he 
considers incontrovertible messages from his son killed 
in battle. The collection of thousands of affirmative 
answers to the question as to whether one had ever felt a 
ghostly presence not to be explained on natural grounds 
brought out a mass of material that might ser\'e for 
plot-making. Haunted houses have been catalogued 
and the census of specters taken. 

The investigations in modem Spiritualism have done 
much to affect ghostly literature. The terrors of the 
later apparitions are not physical, but ps3'chical, and 



76 Later Influences 

probably the stories of the future vnH be more and more 
allied to Spirituahsm. Hamlin Garland, John Corbin, 
William Dean Howells, Algernon Black^'ood, Arnold 
Bennett, and others have written novels and stories of this 
material, though scarcely the fringe of the garment of 
possibihties has yet been touched. If one but grant the 
hypothesis of Spiritualism, what vistas open up for the 
novelist ! What thrilHng complications might come from 
the skillful manipulation of astrals alone, — as aids in 
establishing alibis, for instance! Even the limitations 
that at present bind ghost stories would be aboHshed and 
the effects of the dramatic employment of spiritualistic 
faith would be highly sensational. If the will be all 
powerful, then not only tables but mountains may be 
moved. The laws of physics would be as nothing in the 
presence of such powers. A lovelorn youth bent on 
attaining the object of his desires could, by merely willing 
it so, sink ocean liners, demolish skyscrapers, call up 
tempests, and rival German secret agents in his havoc. 
Intensely dramatic psychological material might be 
produced by the conflict resulting from the double or 
multiple personalities in one's own nature, according to 
spiritualistic ideas. There might be complicated crossings 
in love, wherein one would be jealous of his alter ego, and 
conflicting ambitions of exciting character. The struggle 
necessary for the model story might be intensely dramatic 
though altogether internal, between one's own selves. 
One finds himself so much more interesting in the light 
of such research than one has ever dreamed. The dis- 
tinctions between materializations and astralizations, 
etherealizations and plain apparitions might furnish good 
plot structure. The personality of the "sensitives" 
alone would be fascinating material and the cosmic 
clashes of will possible under these conceived conditions 
suggest thrilling stories. 



Later Influences 



i I 



Dreams constitute another definite source for ghostly 
plots in modem literature. While this was true to a 
certain extent in the Gothic novel, it is still more so in 
later fiction. Lafcadio Heam^ advances the theory that 
all the best plots for ghost stories in any language come 
from dreams. He advises the person who would write 
supernatural thrillers to study the phases of his own dream 
life. It would appear that all one needs to do is to look 
into his own nightmares and write, Heam says: **AU 
the great effects produced by poets and story writers and 
even by rehgious teachers, in the treatment of the super- 
natural fear or mystery, have been obtained directly or 
indirectly from dreams," Though one may not Hterally 
accept the whole of that statement, one must feel that the 
relation between dreams and supernatural impressions 
is strikingly close. The feding of supernatural presence 
comes almost always at night when one is or has been 
asleep. The gvulty man, awaking from sleep, thinks that 
he sees the specters of those he has wronged — ^because 
his dreams have embodied them for him. The lover 
beholds the spirit of his dead love, because in dreams his 
soul has gone in search of her. Very young children are 
imable to distinguish between dreams and reality, as is 
the case of savages of a low order, believing in the actual- 
ity of what they experience in dreams. And who can say 
that our dream fife is altogether baseless and imreal? 

The different nightmare sensations, acute and vivid as 
they are. can be analyzed to find parallelisms between 
them and the ghostly plots. For example, take the 
sensation, common in nightmares, of feeling yourself 
falling from immeasurable height. The same thrill of 
suspense is commimicated by the climax in Lewis's and 
Mrs. Dacre's Gothic novels, where the de\-il takes guilty 
mortals to the mountain top and hurls them down, 

' In his InterprdaUons of LUerature. 



78 Later Influences 

down. The horrible potentialities of shadows suggested 
frequently in dreams is illustrated by Mary Wilkins 
Freeman's story where the accusing spirit comes back as a 
haunting shadow on the wall, rather than as an ordinary 
ghost, tormenting the living brother till his shadow also 
appears, a portent of his death. ^ The awful grip of cause- 
less horror, of nameless fear which assails one so often 
in nightmares is represented in The Red Room,'' where 
black Fear, the Power of Darkness, haunts the room rather 
than any personal spirit. It is disembodied horror 
itself. Wilkie Collins illustrates the presaging vision 
of approaching disaster in The Dream Woman. The 
nightmare horror of supernaturalism is nowhere better 
shown than in Maupassant's La Horla where the sleeper 
wakes with a sense of leaden weight upon his breast, and 
knows that night after night some dreadful presence is 
shut in with him, invisible yet crushing the life out of him 
and driving him mad. 

The nightmare motifs are present to a remarkable 
degree in Bulwer-Lytton's The Haunted and the Haunters, 
or the House and the Brain. There we have the gigantism 
of the menacing Thing, the supernatural power given to 
inanimate objects, the ghostly chill, the darkness, and the 
intolerable oppression of a nameless evil thing beside 
one. Vampirism might easily be an outcome of dreams, 
since based on a physical sensation of pricking at the 
throat, combined with debility caused by weakness, 
which could be attributed to loss of blood from the ravages 
of vampires. F. Marion Crawford's story, For the Blood 
Is the Life, is more closely related to dreams than most of 
the type, though probably Bram vStoker's Dracida is the 
most horrible. 

The curious side of supernaturalism as related to 
dreams is illustrated by The Dream Gown of the Jap- 

' The Shadows on the Wall. ' By H. G. Wells. 



Later Influences 79 

anese Ambassador,'' and the more beautiful by Simeon 
Solomon's Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep. Mary Wil- 
kins Freeman has a remarkable short story, The Hall 
Bedroom, which is one of the best illustrations of the 
use of dream imagery and impressions. Here the ef- 
fects are alluring and beautiful, with the horror kept 
in the background, but perhaps the more effective be- 
cause of the artistic restraint. Odors, sights, sounds, 
feelings, are all raised to an intensity of sensuous, slum- 
brous enjoyment, all subliminated above the mortal. 
The description of the river in the picture, on which the 
young man floats away to dreamy death, similar to the 
Japanese story referred to by Hearn, helps to give the im- 
pression of infinity that comes only in dreams. Alger- 
non Blackwood in numerous stories not only uses the 
elements of dreams and nightmares but explicitly calls 
attention to the fact. Dream supematuralism is employed 
in Barry Pain's stories, in Arthur Machen's volume,'' 
and in many others. Freud's theory of dreams as the 
invariable result of past experiences or unconscious desires 
has not been stressed in fiction, though doubtless it will 
have its inning presently. A. Conan Doyle's The Secret 
of Goresthorpe Grange is an amusing story of the relation 
of definite wishes and dreams of the ghostly. 

These are some of the sources from which the later 
writers of occultism have drawn their plots. They 
represent a distinct advance over the Gothic and earlier 
supematuralism in materials, for the modern story has 
gained the new elements without loss of the old. The 
ghostly fiction of to-day has access to the animistic or 
classical or medieval themes, yet has the unlimited province 
of present thought to furnish additional inspiration. 
There never was a time when thinking along general lines 
was more spontaneously reflected in fiction than now, and 

» By Brander Matthews. ' The Hill of Dreams. 



8o Later Influences 

supernatural literature claims all regions for its own. 
Like every other phase of man's thought, ghostly fiction 
shows the increasing complexity of form and matter, the 
wealth of added material and abounding richness of 
style, the fine subtleties that only modernity can give. 



CHAPTER III 

MODERN GHOSTS 

THE ghost is the most enduring figure in super- 
natural fiction. He is absolutely indestructible. 
He glides from the freshly-cut pages of magazines 
and books bearing the date of the year of our Lord nine- 
teen hundred and seventeen as from the parchment rolls of 
ancient manuscripts. He appears as unapologetically at 
home in twentieth century fiction as in classical mythology, 
Christian hagiology, medieval legend, or Gothic romance. 
He changes with the styles in fiction but he never goes 
out of fashion. He is the really permanent citizen of this 
earth, for mortals, at best, are but transients. Even the 
athlete and the Methusaleh must in the end give up the 
flesh, but the wraith goes on forever. In form, too, he 
wears well. Ghostly substance of materialization, ethereal 
and vaporous as it appears to be, is yet of an astonishing 
toughness. It seems to possess an obstinate vitality 
akin to that attributed to the boll weevil in a negro ballad, 
that went on undaunted by heat or cold, rain or drought, 
time or tide. The ghost, Hke death, has all seasons for 
its own and there is no closed season for spooks. It is 
much the case now as ever that all the world loves a ghost, 
yet we like to take our ghosts vicariously, preferably in 
fiction. We'd rather see than be one. 

One point of difference between the ghostly fiction of the 
past and of the present is in the matter of length. The 

8i 



82 Modern Ghosts 

Gothic novel was often a three- or four-decker affair in 
whose perusal the reader aged perceptibly before the ghost 
succeeded or was foiled in his haunting designs. There 
was obviously much more leisure on the part of spooks 
as well as mortals then than now. Consequently the 
ghost story of to-day is told in short-story form for the 
most part. Poe knew better than anybody before him 
what was necessary for the proper economy of thrills 
when he gave his dictum concerning the desirable length 
for a story, which rule applies more to the ghostly 
tale than to any other type, for surely there is needed 
the unity of impression, the definiteness of effect which 
only continuity in reading gives. The ghostly narrative 
that is too long loses in impressiveness, whether it is 
altogether supernatural or mixed with other elements. 
In either case, it is less successful than the shorter, more 
poignant treatment possible in the compressed form. 
The tabloid ghost can communicate more thrills than the 
one in diluted narration. 

The apparitions in later English fiction fall naturally 
into several distinct classes with reference to the reality 
of their appearance. There are the mistaken apparitions, 
there are the purely subjective specters, evoked by the 
psychic state of the percipients, and there are the objective 
ghosts, independent of the mental state of the witnesses, 
appearing to persons who are not mentally prepared 
to see them. 

The mistaken ghost is an old form, for most of Mrs. 
Radchffe's interesting apparitions belong to this class 
and others of the Gothic writers used subterfuge to 
cheat the reader. In the early romance there was fre- 
quently deliberate deception for a definite purpose, the 
ghosts with the histrionic temperament using a make-up 
of phosphorus, bones, and other contrivances to create 
the impression of unearthly visitation. Recent fiction 



Modern Ghosts 83 

is more cleverly managed than that. Rarely now does 
one find a story where the ghost-seer is deliberately im- 
posed upon, for in most modern cases the mistake occurs 
by accident or misapprehension on the part of the per- 
cipient, for which nobody and nothing but his own agita- 
tion is responsible. Yet there are occasional hoax ghosts 
even yet, for example, The Ghost of Miser Brimpson,"^ 
where a specter is rigged up as the scheme of a clever girl 
to win over an obdurate lover, and The Spectre Bride- 
groom, which is a well-known example of the pseudo-spook 
whose object is matrimony. His Unquiet Ghost ^ is a 
delightful story of a fake burial to evade the revenue 
officials. Watt, the "corp, " says: "I was a powerful 
onchancy, onquiet ghost. I even did my courtin' whilst 
in my reg'lar line o' business a'harntin' a graveyard!" 
His sweetheart sobs out her confession of love to "his 
pore ghost," an avowal she has denied the living man. 
Examples of the apparitions that unwittingly deceive 
mortals are found in The Ghost at Point of Rock, ^ where 
the young telegraph operator, alone at night on a prairie, 
sees a beautiful girl who enters and annoimces that 
she is dead, — how is he to know that she is in a som- 
nambulistic stupor, and has wandered from a train? 
Another is ^ a story where the young man falls in love with 
what he thinks is a wraith of the water luring him to his 
death, but learns that she is a perfectly proper damsel 
whose family he knows. The Night Call^ is less simple 
than these, a problematic story that leaves one wondering 
as to just what is meant. ^ 

The subjective ghosts are legion in modern fiction. 

» By Eden Phillpotts. =» By Charles Egbert Craddock. 

3 By F. H. Spearman. 

4 By the Waters of Paradise, by F. Marion Crawford, 
s By Henry Van Dyke. 

^ As Dr. Blanche Williams points out in her discussion of the short story. 



84 Modern Ghosts 

They are those evoked by the mental state of the per- 
cipients so that they become reahties to those beholding 
them. The mind rendered morbid by grief or remorse 
is readily prepared to see the spirits of the dead return in 
love or with reproach. The apparitions in animistic 
beliefs, as in classical stories and Gothic romance, were 
usually subjective, born of brooding love or remorse 
or fear of retribution, appearing to the persons who 
had cause to expect them and coming usually at night 
when the beholders w^ould be alone and given over to 
melancholy thought or else to troubled sleep. Shake- 
speare's ghosts were in large measure subjective, "selective 
apparitions." When Brutus asked the specter what he 
was, the awful answer came, ''Thy evil genius, Brutus!" 
Macbeth saw the witches who embodied for him his own 
secret ambitions, and he alone saw the ghost of Banquo, 
because he had the weight of murder on his heart. 

The subjective ghost story is difficult to write, as the 
effect must be subtly managed yet inescapably impressive. 
If done well it is admirable, and there are some writers 
who, to use Henry James's words concerning his own work, 
are "more interested in situations obscure and subject to 
interpretation than the gross rattle of the foreground." 
The reader, as well as the writer, must put himself in the 
mental attitude of acceptance of the supernatural else the 
effect is lacking, for the ghostly thrill is incommunicable 
to those beyond the pale of at least temporary credulity. 

Kipling's They is an extraordinary ghost story of sug- 
gestion rather than of bald fact. It is like crushing the 
wings of a butterfly to analyze it, but it represents the 
story of a man whose love for his own dead child enabled 
him to see the spirits of other little children, because he 
loved. As the blind woman told him, only those who were 
spiritually prepared could see them, for "you must bear 
or lose!" before glimpsing them. Thomas Bailey Al- 



Modern Ghosts 85 

drich's Miss MehitaheVs Son is a humorously pathetic 
account of the subjective spirit of a child that was never 
born. Algernon Blackwood's ghosts are to a great 
extent subjective. As John Silence, the psychic doctor, 
says to the shuddering man who has had a racking experi- 
ence: "Your deeply introspective mood had already 
reconstructed the past so intensely that you were en rap- 
port at once with any forces of those past days that 
chanced to be still lingering. And they swept you up all 
unresistingly." In The Shell of Sense, ^ the woman who is 
about to accept her dead sister's husband feels such a sense 
of disloyalty that she sees the sister's spirit reproaching 
her. Her conscience has prepared her for the vision. 
Juliet Wilbur Tompkins shows us the spirit of a mother 
returning to comfort the daughter who has in life mis- 
understood and neglected her, but now, realizing the truth, 
is grieving her heart out for her. ^ Ambrose Bierce tells 
of a prisoner who murders his jailer to escape, but is 
arrested and brought back by the spirit of the dead man. ^ 
Any number of instances might be given of ghosts appear- 
ing to those who are mentally prepared to be receptive 
to supernatural visions, but these will serve to illustrate 
the type. 

Objective ghosts are likewise very numerous in modem 
fiction. The objective spirits are those that, while they 
may be subjective on the part of the persons chiefly 
concerned, to begin with, are yet visible to others as well, 
appearing not only to those mentally prepared to see them 
but to others not thinking of such manifestations and 
even sceptical of their possibiHty. The objective ghosts 
have more definite visibility, more reality than the purely 
subjective spirits. They are more impressive as haunters. 
There is a plausibility, a corporeality about the later 

^ By Olivia Howard Dunbar. 

' They That Mourn. 3 An Arrest. 



86 Modern Ghosts 

apparitions that shows their advance over the diaphanous 
phantoms of the past. Ghosts that eat and drink, play- 
cards, dance, duel, and do anything they wish, that are 
so lifelike in their materialization that they would deceive 
even a medium, are more terrifying than the helpless 
specters of early times that could only give orders for 
the living to carry out. The modern ghost has lost none 
of his mortal powers but has gained additional super- 
mortal abilities, which gives him an unsportsmanlike 
advantage over the mere human being he may take issue 
with. 

Henry James's The Turn of the Screw is a remarkable 
example of the objective ghost story. It is one of the 
best ghostly stories in English, because more philosophical, 
showing more knowledge of the psychology not only of the 
adult but of the child, not only of the human being but 
of the ghost, than most fiction of the type. Peter Quint 
and Miss Jessel with their diabolical conspiracy of evil 
against the two children are so real that they are seen not 
only by the children they hound but by the imsuspecting 
governess as well. She is able to describe them so accu- 
rately that those who knew them in life — as she did not 
at all — recognize them instantly. In The Four-fifteen 
Express, ^ John Derringer's ghost is seen by a man that 
does not know he is dead, and who has not been thinking 
of him at all. The ghost reveals incontrovertible proof 
of his presence, even leaving his cigar-case behind him, — 
which raises the question as to whether ghosts smoke in 
the hereafter in more ways than one. The ghastly inci- 
dent in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights where the 
agonized ghost comes to the window, gashing its wrist on 
the broken pane, is strikingly objectified, for she comes to 
a person who never knew her and is not thinking of any 
supernatural manifestation. Shadows on the Wall,"" that 

* By Amelia B. Edwards. " By Mary Wilkins Freeman. 



Modern Ghosts 87 

story of surpassing power of suggestion, is objective in its 
method, for not only the man who has wronged his dead 
mother sees his spirit returning, not in the ordinary way 
but as an accusing shadow on the wall, but the sisters 
see it as well. 

In John Inglesant,"- the spirit of Lord Strafford is 
seen by the young lad in the vestibule as well as by the 
king whose conscience bums for having left him to die 
undefended. Frank R. Stockton's transferred ghost 
is an objective apparition, for surely the guest in the 
upper chamber was not expecting to see the shade of a 
living man perch itself on the foot of his bed at midnight. 
The horrible specter in The Messenger, "^ is seen by vari- 
ous persons at different times, some of whom are totally 
unprepared for such exhibition. And many similar 
instances might be given. 

Whether ghosts be mistaken, subjective or objective, 
their appearance has always elicited considerable interest 
on the part of himianity. Their substance of materializa- 
tion, their bearing, dress, and general demeanor are 
matters of definite concern to those who expect shortly 
to become ghosts themselves. In some instances the 
modem ghost sticks pretty closely to the animistic 
idea of spirit material, w^hich was that the shade was 
a sort of vapory projection of the body, intangible, impal- 
pable, yet easily recognized with reference to previous 
personality. Chaucer describes some one as being "nat 
pale as a forpyned goost, " which illustrates the conception 
in his day, and the Gothic specimen was usually a pallid 
specter, though Walpole furnished one robust haunter of 
gigantic muscle. Yet for the most part the Gothic ghosts 
were misty wraiths, through which the sword could 
plunge without resistance. They were fragile and help- 
less as an eighteenth-century heroine when it came to a 

' By J. H. Shorthouse. » By Robert W. Chambers. 



88 Modern Ghosts 

real emergency, and were useful chiefly for frightening 
the guilty and consoling the innocent. In some stories 
of the present we have a similar materialization. The 
spirit woman in Kipling's Phantom Rickshaw is so ethereal 
that the horse and its rider plunge through her without 
resistance, and Dickens's Mr. Marley is of such vapory 
substance that Scrooge can see clear through him to count 
the coat-tail buttons at his back. In a recent story. 
The Substitute, ' the spirit is said to evade her friend like 
a mist. 

The Gothic ghost frequently walked forth as a skeleton, 
clad in nothing but his bones and a lurid scowl. Skele- 
tons still perambulate among us, as in The Messenger, 
where the stripped-off mask shows a hideous skull. 

The skeleton burst from out the rotting robes and collapsed 
on the ground before us. From between the staring ribs and 
the grinning teeth spurted a torrent of black blood, showering 
the shrinking grasses, and then the thing shuddered and fell 
over into the black ooze of the bog. 

The ghost of Zuleika^ is described as "a skeleton wo- 
man robed in the ragged remains of a black mantle. 
Near this cnmibling earth body there lay the spirit of 
Zuleika attached to it by a fine thread of magnetic ether. 
Like the earthly body it was wrapped in a robe of black 
of which it seemed the counterpart." Elliott O'Donnell 
has a story of a mummy that in a soldier's tent at night 
sobs, breathes, moves, sits up, and with ghastly fingers 
unfolds its cere-cloth wrappings, appearing to him as 
the counterpart of his long-dead mother, looking at 
him with the eyes he had worshiped in his boyhood. 

I fell on my knees before her and kissed — what? Not the 

feet of my mother but those of the long-buried dead ! Sick 

' By Georgia Wood Pangborne. 'In Ahrinziman, by Anita Silvani. 



Modern Ghosts 89 

with repulsion and fear I looked up and there bending over 
me and peering into my eyes was the face, the fleshless, 
mouldering face of the foul corpse! 

But on the whole, though skeletons do appear in later 
fiction, the rattle of bones is not heard as often as in 
Gothic times. 

Ghostly apparitions are more varied in form than in 
early times. The modern ghost does not require a whole 
skeleton for his purposes, but he can take a single bone 
and put the hardiest to flight with it. It is a dreadful thing 
to realize that a ghost can come in sections, which in- 
definitely multiplies its powers of haunting. F. Marion 
Crawford has a story of a diabolical skull, one of the most 
rabid revenge ghosts on record. A man has murdered his 
wife by pouring melted lead into her ear while she slept, 
in accordance with a suggestion from a casually told story 
of a guest. The de ad woman's skull — the husband cut the 
head off for fear people would hear the lead rattle, and 
buried it in the garden — comes back to haunt the husband, 
with that deadly rattle of the lump of lead inside. The 
teeth bite him, the skull rolls up a hill to follow him, and 
finally kills him, then sets in to haunt the visitor who told 
the suggestive story. ^ Elsewhere as well Crawford shows 
us skulls that have uncanny powers of motion and emo- 
tion. In Wilkie Collins's Hamited Hotel the specter is seen 
as a bodiless head floating near the ceiling of the room 
where the man was murdered and his body concealed. 
Thackeray "^ describes a ghost with its head on its lap, 
and of course every one will remember the headless horse- 
man with his head carried on the pommel of his saddle that 
frightened poor Ichabod Crane out of his wits. 

We get a rabble of headless apparitions in BrissoVs 
Ghost, one of the Anti-Jacobin parodies (ridiculing Richard 
Glover's ballad of Hosier's Ghost) : 

^ The Screaming Skull. 'In A Notch on the Axe. 



90 Modern Ghosts 

Sudden up the staircase sounding 

Hideous \'ells and shrieks were heard; 
Then, each guest with fear confounding, 

A grim train of ghosts appeared ; 
Each a head in anguish gasping 

(Himself a trunk deformed with gore) 
In his hand, terrific clasping, 

Stalked across the wine-stained floor. 

In Bulwer-Lytton's The Haunters and the Haunted a 
woman's hand without a body rises up to clutch the an- 
cient letters, then withdraws, while in his Strajige Story the 
supernatural manifestation comes as a vast Eye seen in the 
distance, moving nearer and nearer, "seeming to move 
from the ground at a height of some lofty giant. " Then 
other Eyes appear. "Those Eyes! Those terrible Eyes! 
Legions on legions! And that tramp of numberless feet! 
they are not seen, but the hollow^s of the earth echo to their 
tread! " The supernatural phenomena in Ambrose Bierce's 
stories have an individual horror. In A Vine on the 
House he shows a hideous revenge ghost manifested in a 
peculiar form. A couple of men take refuge in a deserted 
house and note a strange vine covering the porch that 
shakes unaccountably and violently. In mystification 
they dig it up, to find the roots in the form of a woman's 
body, lacking one foot, as had been the case with the 
woman who had lived there and whose husband had 
killed her secretly and buried her beside the porch. 

The revenge ghost in modem fiction frequently mani- 
fests itself in this form, mutilated or dismembered, each 
disfigurement of the mortal body show^ing itself in a 
relentless immortality and adding to the horror of the 
haunting. There seems to be no seat of ghostly mind or 
soul, for the body can perform its function of haunting 
in whole or in part, unaided by the head or heart, like a 
section of a snake that has life apart from the main body. 



Modern Ghosts 91 

And this idea of detached part of the form acting as a 
determined agent for revenge adds a new horror to fic- 
tion. I haven't as yet found an instance of a woman's 
heart, bleeding and broken, coming up all by itself to 
haunt the deserting lover, but perhaps such stories will be 
written soon. And think what terrors would await the 
careless physician or surgeon if each outraged organ 
or dismembered limb came back to seek vengeance on 
him! 

Ghosts of modern fiction are more convincing in their 
reality than the specters of early times. They are 
stronger, more vital ; there seems to be a strengthening of 
ghostly tissue, a stiffening of supernatural muscle in these 
days. Ghosts are more healthy, more active, more alive 
than they used to be. There is now as before a strong 
resemblance to the personality before death, the same 
immortality of looks that is discouraging to the prospects 
of homely persons who have hoped to be more handsome 
in a future state. Fiction gives no basis for such hope. 
Peculiarities of appearance are carried over with distress- 
ing faithfulness to detail, each freckle, each wrinkle, each 
gray hair showing with the clearness of a photographic 
proof. Note the lifelikeness of the governess's description 
of Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw. 

He has red hair, very red, very close-curling, and a pale 
face, long in shape, with straight, good features and little 
queer whiskers that are as red as his hair. His eyebrows are 
somehow darker and particularly arched as if they might 
move a good deal. His eyes are sharp, strange, awful. His 
mouth is wide, his lips thin. 

This seems an unspectral description, for red hair is not 
wraith-like, yet a red-headed ghost that lifted its eye- 
brows unnaturally would be alarming. She says of him : 



92 Modern Ghosts 

"He was absolutely, on this occasion, a living, dangerous, 
detestable presence. " 

Each minor disfigurement is retained, as the loss of the 
tooth in Crawford's screaming skull, the missing toe in 
Bierce's Middle Toe of the Right Foot, the lacking foot 
in the ghostly vine, and so forth. Nothing is neglected to 
make identification absolute in present tales of horror. 
The spirits described by Bram Stoker have red, voluptu- 
ous lips and pink cheeks, and the spirit of Sir Oliver's 
mother, in De Morgan's An Affair of Dishonor, that comes 
to meet him as he passes her mausoleum on his way to the 
shameful duel, limps as in life, so that he recognizes her, 
though the cloaked and hooded figure has its face turned 
from him. Jessie Adelaide Middleton shows us one ghost 
with half a face. 

Ghostly apparel constitutes an interesting feature of 
supematuralism in literature. There seem to be as defi- 
nite conventions concerning spectral clothes as regarding 
the garb of the living fashionables. It is more difficult 
to understand the immortality of clothes than of human- 
ity, for bodily tissue even of ghosts might quite conceiv- 
ably renew itself, but not so with the ghostly garments. 
Of what stuff are ghost-clothes made ? And why do they 
never wear out ? 

In olden times when people wore clothes of less radical 
styles than now and fewer of them, masculine spirits were 
in part identified by their familiar armor. Armor is so 
material and heavy that it seems incongruous to the 
ghostly function, yet shields and accouterments were 
necessary accompaniments of every knightly spook. He 
must be ever ready to tilt with rival ghost. The Gothic 
phantoms were well panoplied and one remembers par- 
ticularly the giant armor in Walpole's novel. Nowadays 
the law forbids the carrying of weapons, which restric- 
tion seems to have been extended to ghostdom as well. 



Modern Ghosts 93 

Specters are thus placed at a disadvantage, for one would 
scarcely expect to see even the wraith of a Texas cow-boy 
toting a pistol. 

Specters usually appear in the garments in which the 
beholder saw them last in life. Styles seem petrified at 
death so that old-time ghosts now look like figures from 
the movies or guests at a masquerade ball. One other 
point to be noted is that women phantoms are frequently 
seen in black or in white. White seems reminiscent of the 
shroud, as well as of youth and innocence, so is appropri- 
ate, while black connotes gloom, so is suitable, yet the 
really favored color is gray. Most of the specters this 
season are dressed in gray. I scarcely know why this is 
affected by shades, yet the fact remains that many wraiths 
both men and women are thus attired. Gray is the tone 
that witches of modem tastes choose also, whereas their 
ancient forbears went in black and red. Modem ghosts 
are at a disadvantage in the matter of clothes compared 
with the earlier ones, since the styles now change so quickly 
and so decidedly that a ghost is hopelessly passe before he 
has time to materialize at all in most instances. 

Examples of ghostly garments in later fiction evidence 
their variety. Katherine Fullerton Gerould^ shows us 
three ghosts, one of a woman in a blue dress, one of a rattle- 
snake, and one of a Zulu warrior wearing only a loin- 
cloth, a nose-ring, and a scowl. (We do not often see the 
nude in ghosts, perhaps because they have a shade of 
modesty.) Co-operative Ghosts'" depicts a man clad 
in the wraith of a tweed suit, mid- Victorian, "with those 
familiar Matthew Arnold side- whiskers." In addition to 
Mr. Morley's coat-tail buttons which we glanced through 
him to see, we observe that he wears ghostly spectacles, a 
pig-tail, tights and boots, and a prim waist-coat. In Kip- 
ling's They we see the glint of a small boy's blue blouse, 

* In On the Stairs. " By F. Converse. 



94 Modern Ghosts 

while another Kipling youngster, a war-ghost,^ struts 
around in his comical first trousers which he would not be 
robbed of even by the German soldiers that murdered him. 
Other children in the same story are said to have on ' 'dis- 
gracefully dirty clothes." I do not recall any soilure on 
Gothic garments, save spectral blood- stains and the 
mold of graves. Neither did I discover any child wraith 
in Gothicism save the pitiful spirits of baby victims in 
The Alhigenses and the baby wraiths in Hogg's The Wool- 
gatherer. The Englishman driven mad by the apparition 
of the woman he has wronged in Kipling's story'' is de- 
scribed by him as "wearing the dress in which I saw her last 
alive; she carried the same tiny handkerchief in her right 
hand and the same card-case in her left. ' ' (A woman eight 
months dead with a card-case!) Blackwood shows -us a 
ghost in purple knee-breeches and velvet coat ; in The Gray 
Guest ^ the returning Napoleon wears a long military cloak 
of gray and military boots, while Crawford has one dread- 
ful ghost coming back to wreak revenge in wet oil-skins. 
The eccentric spook in Josephine Daskam Bacon's The 
Heritage is dressed in brown and sits stolidly and silently 
on the side of the bed with its back turned. Think of 
being haunted by an unbudging brown back ! No wonder 
it drove the young husband to spend his wedding night 
huddled on the stairs. We have instances of a ghost 
in a red vest, a relentless revenge spirit that hounds 
from ocean to ocean his murderer and the betrayer of his 
daughter, and another of a ghost in a red shirt. There 
is on the whole as much variety and appropriateness 
of costume in modern ghost fiction as in Broadway 
melodrama. 

Another point of difference between the specters of to- 
day and those of the past is in the extension of their ave- 

' In Swept and Garnished. ' Phantom Rickshaw. 

3 By Laurence Clarke. 



Modern Ghosts 95 

nues of approach to us. Ghostly appeal to the senses is 
more varied now than in earlier times. The classical as 
well as the Gothic ghosts appealed in general only to the 
sight and hearing, as well as, of course, to the sixth sense 
that realizes the presence of a supernatural being. Ghosts 
were seen and heard and were content with that. But 
nowadays more points of contact are open to them and 
they haunt us through the touch, the smell, as well as sight 
and hearing. The taste as a medium of impression has 
not yet been exploited by fiction writers though doubt- 
less it will be worked out soon. There is a folk-tale of the 
Skibos that wolves eat ghosts and find them very appetiz- 
ing and the devil in Poe's Bon Bon says he eats the spirits 
of mortals. One might imagine what haunting dyspepsia 
could result if an ill-tempered spook were devoured against 
his will. It is conceivable, too, that gastronomic ghosts 
might haunt cannibals; and who knows that the dark 
brown taste in the mouths of riotous livers is not some 
specter striving to express itself through that medium 
instead of being merely riotous livers? 

The appeal of ghosts to the sight has already been 
discussed so need not be mentioned here. But the ele- 
ment of invisibility enters in as a new and very terrible 
form of supernatural manifestation in later fiction. In 
spite of the general visibility, some of the most horrible 
tales turn on the fact that the haunter is unseen. H. G. 
Wells's Invisible Man is a human being, not a ghost ; yet 
the story has a curdling power that few straight ghost 
stories possess. Maupassant's La Horla is a nightmare 
story of an invisible being that is terrific in its effect. The 
victim knows that an unseen yet definite and determined 
something is shut in his room with him night after night, 
eating, drinking, reading, sitting on his chest, driving him 
mad. Ambrose Bierce's The Damned Thing is a gruesome 
story of invisibility, of a something that is abroad with 



96 Modern Ghosts 

unearthly power of evil, whose movements can be meas- 
ured by the bending of the grasses, which shuts off the 
light from other objects as it passes, which struggles with 
the dogs and with men, till it finally kills and horribly 
mangles the man who has been studying it, but is never 
seen. Another' has for its central figure a being that 
violently attacks men and is overpowered and tied only by 
abnormal strength, that struggles on the bed, showing its 
imprint on the mattress, that is imprisoned in a plaster 
cast to have its mold taken, that is heard breathing 
loudly till it dies of starvation, yet is absolutely never 
visible. Blackwood's Fire Elemental may be seen mov- 
ing along only by the bending of the grass beneath it and 
by the trail it leaves behind, for though it is audible yet it 
is never seen. As a brave man said of it, * * I am not afraid 
of anything that I can see / " so these stories of superna- 
tural invisibility have a chilling horror more intense than 
that of most ghostly tales. The element of invisibility 
of unmistakably present spirits is shown in other stories. 
One tender story of an invisible ghost is told in In No 
Strange Land, ^ of a man killed suddenly in a wreck while 
on his way home to the birthday dinner his wife is prepar- 
ing for him. He does not know that he has been hurt ; but 
while his dead body lies mangled under the wreckage his 
spirit hurries home. He swears whimsically under his 
breath at some interruption and thinks with joy of the 
happy little group he will meet. But when he enters his 
home he cannot make them see or hear him. They are 
vaguely aware of some strange influence, are awed by it, 
and the little son with the poet's heart whispers that he 
hears something, but that is all. The man stands by, 
impotently stretching out his arms to them till he hears 
the messenger tell them that he is dead. 

» What Was It? A Mystery, by Fitz-James O'Brien. 
" By Katherine Butler. 



Modern Ghosts 97 

Ghosts are variable with respect to sounds as well as 
appearance. The early ghosts were for the most part 
silent, yet could talk on occasion, and classical appari- 
tions were sometimes vocal and sometimes silent. The 
Gothic ghost sometimes had an impediment in his speech 
while at other times he could converse fluently. The 
Gothic specter, real as well as faked, frequently lifted 
voice in song and brought teri'or to the guilty bosom by 
such strains. Yet when he spoke he was usually brief in 
utterance. Perhaps the reason for that lay in the lack of 
surety on the part of the writers as to the proper ghostly 
diction. Gothic authors were not overstrong on tech- 
nique and they may have hesitated to let their specters be 
too fluent lest they be guilty of dialectic errors. It would 
seem incongruous for even an illiterate ghost to murder the 
king's English, which presents a difficulty in the matter 
of realism, so perchance the writers dodged the issue by 
giving their ghosts brevity of speech, or in some cases by 
letting them look volumes of threats but utter no word. 
This may explain the reason for the non-speaking ghosts 
in classical and Elizabethan drama. There is a similar 
variation in the later Action, for many of the ghosts are 
eloquently silent, while other phantoms are terrifyingly 
fluent. All this goes to prove the freedom of the modern 
ghost for he does what he takes a notion to do. The 
invisible ghosts are as a rule voiceless as well. 

The Gothic romance was fond of mysterious music 
as an accompaniment of supernatural visitation, but 
ghostly music is less common than it used to be. Yet 
it does come at times, as in A Far-away Melody, ' where 
two spinster sisters living alone hear heavenly music 
as portent of their death. Ghostly song is heard in 
another case, ^ where a woman's spirit comes back to 
sing in a duet at her funeral, and Crawford's ghost ^ 

^ By Mary Wilkins Freeman. ' Two Voices. ^ In Man Overboard. 
7 



98 Modern Ghosts 

constant^ whistles a tune he had been fond of during life. 
In Co-operative Ghosts the wraith of the young giri who in 
Cromwellian times betrayed her father's cause to save her 
lover's life sings sadly, 

"T could not love thee, dear, so much, 
Loved I not honor more ! ' ' 

In Crawford's A Doll's Ghost, that peculiar example of 
preternatural fiction, not a children's story as one might 
think, nor yet humorous, the mechanical voice of the doll 
and the click of its tiny pattering feet occur as strange 
sounds. Lord Strafford' walks with a firm, audible tread 
on his way to appall the king, and in Blackwood's Empty 
House the ghosts move with sounds of heavy, rushing feet, 
followed by a noise of scuffling and smothered screams as 
the ancient murder is re-enacted, then the thud of a body 
thrown down the stairs, — after which is a terrible silence. 
The awful effect of a sudden silence after supernatural 
sounds is nowhere shown more tensely than in The Mon- 
key's Paw,"" that story of superlative power of suggestion. 
When the ghostly visitant knocks loudly at the outer door, 
we feel the same thrill of chilling awe as in the knocking at 
the gate in Macbeth, and more, for the two who hear are 
sure that this is a presence come back from the dead. 
Then when the last magic wish has been breathed, utter 
silence comes, a silence more dreadful in its import than 
the clamor has been. 

New sounds are introduced in modern ghostly tales, 
such as the peculiar hissing that is a manifestation of the 
presence of the ancient spirit ^ followed by the crackling 
and crashing of the enchanted flames. In Blackwood's 
Keeping His Promise the heavy, stertorous breathing of 
the invisible Thing is heard, and the creaking of the bed 

" In John Inglesant. ' By W. W. Jacobs. 

3 In A Nemesis of Fire, by Blackwood. 



Modern Ghosts 99 

weighted down by the body. Mary Wilkins Freeman 
brings in ghostly crying in a story, while Blackw^ood speaks 
of his Wendigo as having "a sort of windy, crying voice, 
as of something lonely and untamed, wild and of abomin- 
able power." Kipling introduces novel and touching 
sounds in his stories of ghostly children. The child- 
wraiths are gay, yet sometimes near to tears. He speaks 
of "the utterly happy chuckle of a child absorbed in some 
light mischief," "sudden, squeaking giggles of child- 
hood," "the rustle of a frock and the patter of feet in 
the room beyond," "joyous chuckles of evasion," and 
so forth. These essentially childlike and lifelike sounds 
are deeply pathetic as coming from the ghosts of little 
ones that hover, homesick, near the earth they dread to 
leave. The little ghost boy in Richard Middleton's 
story,' manifests himself, invisibly, through the little 
prancing steps, the rustling of the leaves through which he 
runs, and the heart-breaking imitations of an automobile. 
Later ghostly fiction introduces few of the clankings 
of chains and lugubrious groans that made the Gothic 
romance mournful, and the modern specters are less wail- 
ful than the earlier, but more articulate in their expres- 
sion. There are definite ghostly sounds that recur in 
various stories, such as the death-rap above the bed of the 
dying, the oft-mentioned mocking laughter in empty 
places, the cry of the banshee which is the presage of 
death not only of the body but of the soul, as well. On 
the whole, the sounds in modern supernatural stories are 
more varied in their types, more expressive of separate 
and individual horror, and with an intensified power of 
haunting suggestion than was the case with the earlier 
forms. 

The sense of smell was not noticeably exploited in the 
ancient or Gothic ghost stories, though certain folk-tales, 

* The Passing of Edward. 



100 Modern Ghosts 

as Hawaiian stories of the lower worid, speak of it. The 
devil was supposed to be in bad odor, for he was usu- 
ally accompanied by sulphurous scents, as we notice in 
Calderon's drama, ^ and some of the Gothic novels, but 
that seems to be about the extent of the matter. But 
moderns, while not so partial to brimstone, pay consider- 
able attention to supernatural odors. The devil has been 
dry-cleaned, but the evil odors of later fiction are more 
objectionable than the fumes of the pit, are more var- 
iant, more individual and distinctive. Odors seem less 
subjective than sights or sounds, and are not so conven- 
tionalized in ghostly fiction, hence when they are cleverly 
evoked they are unusually effective. These supernatural 
scents have a very lasting quality too, for they linger on 
after the other manifestations of the preternatural are 
past. In The Haunted Hotel,'' the ghost manifests itself 
through the nostrils. In room number thirteen there is 
an awful stench for which no one can account, and which 
cannot be removed by any disinfectants. Finally when 
a woman especially sympathetic to a man mysteriously 
dead is put in the room, the ghost appears as a decaying 
head, floating near the ceiling and emitting an intolerable 
odor. The Upper Berth^ tells of a strange, foul sea odor 
that infests a certain stateroom and that no amount of 
fumigating or airing will remove. As the Thing comes out 
of the sea to carry its victim away with it, the man in the 
lower berth gets the full force of the unearthly smell. 
There are definite foul supernatural odors associated with 
supernatural animals in recent ghostly tales, as that "ghost 
of an unforgettable strange odor, of a queer, acrid, pungent 
smell like the odor of lions, " which announces the presence 
of the awful out-door something called by the Indians, 
the Wendigo. In Kipling's story ^ of a man whose 

* El Magico Prodigioso. ^ By Wilkie Collins. 

3 By F. Marion Crawford. -• The Mark of the Beast. 



Modern Ghosts loi 

soul has been stolen by Indian magic through the curse of 
a leper priest and a beast's soul put in its place, — his com- 
panions are sickened by an intolerable stench as of wild 
beasts, and when the curse is removed and he comes back 
to himself, he sniffs the air and asks what causes ''such a 
horrid doggy smell in the air. " 

Sometimes the ghastly presence comes as a whiff of 
perfume,^ where the spirit of the dead woman brings 
with it flowers in masses, with a heavenly perfimie which 
lingers after the spirit in visible form has departed. The 
subtlest and most delicately haunting story of this type is 
O. Henry's,^ where the loved, dead girl reveals herself 
to the man who is desperately hunting the big city over 
for her, merely as a whiff of mignonette, the flower she 
most loved. 

But it is through the sense of touch that the worst form 
of haunting comes. Seeing a supernatural visitant is 
terrible, hearing him is direful, smelling him is loathsome, 
but having him touch you is the climax of horror. This 
element comes in much in recent stories. The earlier 
ghosts seemed to be more reserved, to know their spectral 
place better, were not so ready to presume on unwelcome 
familiarities as those in later fiction, but spooks have 
doubtless followed the fashion of mortals in this easy, 
relaxed age and have become a shade too free in their 
manners. Of course, one remembers the crushing specter 
in Otranto castle that flattened the hapless youth out so 
effectually, and there are other instances less striking. 
But as a general thing the Gothic ghost was content to 
stand at a distance and hurl curses. Fortunately for our 
ancestors' nerves, he did not incline much to the laying 
on of hands. Modem ghosts, however, have not been 
taught to restrain their impulses and they venture on 

* As in Here and There, by Alice Brown. 
^ The Furnished Room. 



102 Modern Ghosts 

liberties that Radcliffian romance would have disap- 
proved of. 

The Damned Thing gives an example of muscular 
supematuralism, for the mysterious being kills a dog in 
a stiff fight, then later slays the master after a terrible 
struggle in which the man is disfigured beyond words to 
describe. O'Brien shows a terrible being of abnormal 
power that is tied only after a tremendous effort, and 
which fights violently to free itself. And the Thing in the 
upper berth had an awesome strength. 

It was something ghostly, horrible, beyond words, and it 
moved in my grasp. It was like the body of a man long dead 
and yet it moved, and had the strength of ten men living, 
but I gripped it with all my might, the slippery, oozy, horrible 
thing. I wrestled with the dead thing; it thrust itself upon 
me and nearly broke my arms ; it wound its corpselike arms 
around my neck, the living death, and overpowered me, so 
that at the last I cried aloud and fell and left my hold. 

As I fell the thing sprang across me and seemed to throw 
itself upon the captain. When I last saw him on his feet his 
face was white and his lips set. It seemed to me that he 
struck a violent blow at the dead being, and then, he, too, 
fell forward on his face. 

The ghostly touch is frequently described, not only in 
fiction but in reports of the Psychical Society as well, as 
being of supernatural chill or of burning heat. After- 
wards, ' brings in the icy touch of the spirit hand. In cer- 
tain cases the ghost touch leaves a burn or mark that 
never goes away. 

Yet the touch of horror is not the only one introduced 
in fiction of the supernatural. There are tender and 
loving touches as well, expressing yearning love and a 
longing to communicate with the living. What could 
be more beautiful than the incident in They? "I felt 

» By Fred C. Smale. 



Modern Ghosts 103 

my relaxed hand taken and turned softly between the soft 
hands of a child. The little brushing kiss fell in the center 
of my palm — as gift on which the fingers were once expected 
to close — a fragment of a mute code devised very long ago." 
And in a similar story, ^ the woman says, "I will swear to 
my dying day that two little hands stole and rested — for a 
moment only — ^in mine!" Wilkie Collins speaks of his 
story, The Ghost's Touch, as follows: 

The course of this narrative leads the reader on new and 
strange ground. It describes the return of a disembodied 
spirit to earth — not occurring in the obscurity of midnight 
but in the searching light of day; neither seen as a vision nor 
heard as a voice — revealing itself to mortal knowledge through 
the sense that is least easily self-deceived, the sense that feels. 

The widow feels the clasp of her husband's hands, not 
only psychically but physically, and when she asks for a 
further sign, the ghost kisses her unmistakably on the lips. 
Another widow ^ feels her hand clasped by the hand of her 
husband who has mysteriously disappeared after having 
presumably absconded with trust funds — and knows that 
he is dead and seeking to give her some message. His 
hand gently leads her to the edge of the cliff where he has 
fallen over and been killed, so that she may know the 
truth. The lover in Poe's Eleonora feels a "spiritual kiss" 
from the lips of his beloved. The ghost touch is an im- 
pressive motif of strength in recent fiction and marks 
an advance over the earlier forms, showing an access of 
imaginative power and psychological analysis. 

Another point of contrast between the modern and the 
older ghosts is in the greater freedom enjoyed by those of 
to-day. The ghosts of our ancestors were weak and 
helpless creatures in the main and the Gothic specter was 

' A Pair of Hands, by Quiller-Couch. 
' In Oup^Last Walk, by Hugh Conway. 



104 Modern Ghosts 

tyrannized over to such an extent that he haxdly dared 
call his shade his own. The spook of to-day has acquired a 
latchkey and asserted his independence. He may have a 
local habitation but he isn't obHged to stay there. Now- 
a-days even the spectral women are setting up to be 
feminists and have privileges that would have caused the 
Gothic wraiths to swoon \\ith horror. Ghosts are not so 
sensitive to the barometer now as they used to be, nor do 
they have such an active influence over the weather as did 
the Gothic phantoms. They do not need a tempest for their 
materiahzation nor a supernatural play of Hghtning for 
their wild threats, and comparatively few storms occur 
in later fiction. Yet there is certainly no lessening of the 
ghostly thrill in consequence. 

Neither are the spirits of to-day limited to any set hours 
as was the rule in Gothicism. The t^^anny of the dark, 
the autocratic rule of twelve or one o'clock as the arbitrary 
hour for apparitions, has been removed. Katherine Fuller- 
ton Gerould shows an interesting collection of ghosts that 
come at eleven o'clock in the morning, Georgia Wood 
Pangbome brings one out on the seashore in mid-after- 
noon, and KipHng has various ghosts that appear in day- 
light and in the open air. 

Ghosts in modem fiction are not dependent upon a set- 
ting of sullen scener}' as in Gothicism, but may choose any 
surroundings they like. Since modem household arrange- 
ments do not include family vaults as a general thing, and 
since cemeteries are inconveniently located, there is a 
tendency on the part of haunters to desert such quarters. 
Mar}' Wilkins Freeman and Charles Egbert Craddock 
each has one ghost story located in a graveyard, and 
The Last Ghost in Harmony "^ is set in a burying-ground, 
but the specter complains loudly of the unsentimental 
mind of the town which has lost interest in ghosts, and 

» By N. M. Lloyd. 



Modern Ghosts 105 

leaves in disgust. Likewise the domination of the Gothic 
castles, those ''ghaist-alluring edifices," has passed away 
and modern spooks are not confined to any one locality as 
in the past. They appear where they will, in the most 
prosaic places, in cheap lodging-houses, in hall bedrooms, 
in bungalows, in the staterooms of steamers, on tramp 
ships, and so forth. Algernon Blackwood has set a num- 
ber of thrilling ghost stories out in the open, in the woods, 
in the desert sand wastes, and similar places. One effect 
of such realistic and unspectral setting is to give a greater 
verisimiHtude to the events described, and the modem tale 
bears out Leigh Hunt's suggestion that "a ghost story, to 
be a good one, should unite, as much as possible, objects 
as they are in life, with a preternatural spirit." Yet 
here are ghosts that do haunt certain rooms as relent- 
lessly as ever Gothic specter did. 

The modern ghost has power over certain localities 
rather than mere houses or apartments. If the house he 
calls his own is torn down, he bides his time and haunts 
the new structure built on the same spot. Or if no new 
house goes up, he hangs around and haunts the vacant 
lot, which is a more reprehensible procedure than the 
ordinary habits of spooks. One story concerns a house so 
persistently ghosted that its owner took it down section by 
section, trying to arrive at the location ot the curse, but 
to no avail. When the whole building had been razed 
and the site plowed over, the ghost undiscouraged 
haunted merrily on. Then the owner left in disgust. 
Algernon Blackwood is fond of situations where localities 
are haunted by evil spirits,' where a whole village 
is inhabited by the ghosts of long-dead witches, or Secret 
Worship that relates the experience of a man who wanders 
within the limits of a place made horrible by devil-wor- 
shipers, long-dead, but life-like, and inhabiting a house 

^ As in Ancient Sorceries. 



io6 Modern Ghosts 

that has been torn down years before but appears as 
usual, where they entrap the souls of the living for their 
fiendish sacrifice. Another^ is the record of a spirit of 
frightful evil that haunts a house built on the spot where 
an older house once stood, whose diabolism lingers on to 
curse the living. The spirit that haunts a locality rather 
than one room or house has a more malignant power than 
the more restricted ghost and this adds a new element of 
definite supernaturalism to modern fiction. But as houses 
are so much less permanent now than formerly, ghosts 
would be at a terrible disadvantage if they had to be evicted 
every time a building was torn down. 

Ghostly psychology is a fascinating study. The de- 
velopment of spectral personality is one of the evident 
facts gained from a historical survey of supernatural 
fiction. The modern ghost has more individuality, more 
distinctiveness, in the main, than his forbears. The 
ghosts of medievalism, of ancient superstition, and the 
drama were for the most part pallid, colorless beings in 
character as in materialization. The ancient ghosts were 
more mournful than the moderns, since the state of the 
dead in early times was by no means enviable. The 
most one could hope for then was Hades, while the spirits 
who hadn't been buried couldn't find entrance even there 
but were forced by relentless spectral police to keep for- 
ever moving. The Christian religion furnishes a more 
cheerful outlook, so in later manifestations the gloom is 
considerably lightened. Yet even so the Gothic ghosts 
were morbid, low-minded specters not much happier than 
the unlucky wights they felt it their business to haunt. 
Their woe-begone visages, their clanking chains, and other 
accompaniments of woe betokened anything but cheer. 

There are some unhappy spirits in recent fiction, but 

' A Psychic Invasion. 



Modern Ghosts 107 

not such a large proportion as in the past. And there is 
usually some basis for their joylessness; they don't have 
general melancholia with no grounds for it. The ghost of 
the dead wife in Readjustment'^ is miserable because she 
has never understood her husband, either in life or in 
death, and she comes back seeking an explanation. An- 
other spectral woman ^ is wretched because she has the 
double crime of murder and suicide on her soul. Poor 
Marley grieves because he is doomed to see the opportuni- 
ties that life has offered him to serv'e others and that he 
has neglected, being forced to see with the clear \-ision of 
the other world the evil restilts of his own neglect, which is 
enough to make any one wretched. A guilty conscience is 
like the burning heart that each spirit in the Hall of Eblis 
bore in his breast. In The Roll-call of the Reef,^ the troop 
of drowned soldiers, infantry-, and horsemen, come rising 
out of the surf to answer to their names. Each man is 
asked by name, "How is it with you?" and answers with 
the deadly sin that has damned him. In Wilkie CoUins's 
gruesome tale-* there is one spirit that is unhappy because 
his body Hes unburied, a recurrence of a theme frequent 
in classical stories and Gothic romance, but rare in later 
fiction. For the most part the later ghosts are something 
more than merely unhappy spirits. They are more positive, 
more active, more individualistic, too philosophical to 
waste time in useless grieving. 

Nor are there many simply happy spirits, perhaps be- 
cause the joyous souls are likely to seek their paradise and 
forget about the earth. Yet there are instances, such as 
the light-hearted spirits of children in various stories, that 
with the resilience of childhood shake off gloom and are 
gay; Rosamond, ^ that comes back to tell her friend how 

' By M. H. Austin. ' In The Closed Cabinet. 

3 By A. T. Quiller-Couch. < The Queen of Hearts, 

s In Here and There. 



io8 Modern Ghosts 

happy the other life is, the peacefiilly content mother,^ 
and others. 

The ghosts that are actively vicious are the most \'ivid 
and numerous in later fiction. The spirits of evil seem to 
have a terrible ctunulative force, being far more maleficent 
than the earher ones, and more powerful in carn'ing out 
their purposes. Ever\- aspect of supematuraHsm seems 
to be ke^'ed up to a higher pitch of terror. Evil seems to 
have a strangely greater power of immortality over that of 
good, judging from the proportion employed in modem 
fiction. Has evil so much more strength ot will, so much 
more permanence of power that it lives on through the 
years and centuries, while good deeds perish with the body? 
It would appear so from fiction. The ghosts of good 
actions do not linger round the abode of the Uving to any 
noticeable extent, but evil deeds are deathless. We have 
many stories of places and persons haunted by the em- 
bodied evil of the past, but few by the embodied good. 
The revenge ghosts outnumber the grateful dead by legions. 

Modem specters have a more complex power than the 
old. They are more awful in their import, for they 
haunt not merely the body, but the soul. The wicked 
spirits will to work dreadful harm to the soul as weU as 
the body, and drive the \ictim to suiritual insanity, seek- 
ing to damn him for the life everlasting, making him, 
not merely their victim, but through eternity their co- 
worker in awful evil. The victim of the vampire, for 
instance, who dies as a result of the attack, has to become 
in his turn a loathsome vampire to prey on other souls and 
bodies. Blackwood's Devil- worshipers seek to kill the 
soul as well as the body of their \'ictim. The deathless- 
ness of e\il is shown in Lytton's^ and in many of Black- 
wood's stories, as where the psychic doctor says to a man, 
"You are now in touch with certain \^olent emotions, 

' In Th^ That Mourn. « The Haunters and the Haunted. 



Modern Ghosts 109 

passions, purposes, still active in this house, that were 
produced in the past by some powerful and evil person- 
ality that lived here." 

Few writers have equaled F. Marion Crawford in the 
modern ghost story. His tales have a curdling intensity, 
a racking horror that set them far above the ordinary 
supernatural fiction. They linger in the mind long after 
one has tried in vain to forget them, if indeed one ever does 
forget their sense of evil power. There is in each of his 
stories an individual horror that marks it as distinct from 
its fellows, a power chiefly won by delineation of this 
immortality of evil, as in The Dead Smile, with its descrip- 
tion of the hideous smile that pollutes the lips of the living 
and of the dead. "Nurse McDonald said that when Sir 
Hugh Ockram smiled, he saw the faces of two women in 
hell, two dead women he had betrayed." His vicious 
impulses last after death and from his grave he reaches 
out to curse his own children, seeking to drive them to 
awful, though unconscious sin. 

Henry James has drawn for us two characters of unmiti- 
gated evil in Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, who, he says, 
are "hovering, prowling, blighting presences." They are 
agents on whom is laid the dire duty of causing the air to 
reek with evil. He says, "I recognize that they are not 
ghosts at all, as we now know the ghost, but goblins, elves, 
imps, demons. The essence of the matter was the villainy 
of the motive in the evoked predatory creature." What 
he wishes to do in this story is to express a general sense of 
spiritual infamy, not specialized, as the hot breath of the 
Pit usually confines itself to some one particular psychical 
brutality, but as capable of everything, the worst that can 
be conceived. How well he has succeeded in his effort, 
those who know the story can testify. 

Ambrose Bierce's stories are in many instances remark- 
able examples of this psychic horror. The Death of Hal- 



no Modern Ghosts 

pin Frazer has a touch of almost unbearable dreadfulness. 
Frazer is assaulted by an evil spirit in a wood at night 
and choked to death, the spirit inhabiting the dead body 
of the man's own mother who has idohzed him. His dead 
mother's face, transfixed with diabolical hate, is thrust 
upon him, and the loved hands that have caressed him 
strangle him. This is similar to the situation of an evil 
spirit occupying the body of a loved dead mother in 
The Mummy s Tale, by Elliot O'Donnell. Bierce's stories 
beat upon the mind like bludgeons and his morbid plots 
are among the most dreadful in our literature. One 
wonders what abnormality of mind conceives such themes, 
evolves such situations. If it be true, as Macaulay sug- 
gests, that not only every poet but every person who 
appreciates poetry is slightly unbalanced mentally, surely 
every writer of such extreme and horrific stories must be 
abnormal. There is more than one writer of modem 
ghostly fiction of whom it might be said that "his soul is 
open on the Hell side." 

Another temperament found distinctively in the later 
fiction is the humorous ghost. He is a recent develop- 
ment, and as might be supposed, is characteristically 
American. There were a few burlesque ghosts in Eliza- 
bethan drama, the Ghost of Jack, ^ for instance, and one 
colored ghost that would seem to connote mirth, but the 
really humorous specter did not come till later. It 
remained for the Yankee to evoke the spook with a sense 
of humor. Ghosts are not essentially laughable, and to 
make them comic without coarseness or irreverence is an 
achievement. Numerous writers have busied their pens 
with the funny spook and now we have ghostly laughter 
that is mirthful and not horrisonous as in other types. 
Specters now laugh with us instead of at us, and instead 
of the mocking laughter heard in lonely places we have 

' In Peele's Old Wives Tales. 



Modern Ghosts in 

"heart-easing mirth. " Washington Irving evokes several 
humorous hoax ghosts, such as the headless horseman 
that created excitement in Sleepy Hollow and the seren- 
ading phantom in The Specter Bridegroom. 

Richard Middleton in his Ghost Ship shows some very 
informal humorous ghosts. The girls and boys rise from 
their graves to flirt over their tombstones on moonlight 
nights, and the children play with the village specters as 
companions, their favorite being the man that sits on the 
wellcurbing with his severed head held in his hands. The 
cottagers rebuke the spooks overhead when they grow too 
noisy, and a general good-fellowship prevails. Into this 
setting the ghost ship sails one night, anchoring itself 
in the middle of a turnip patch, and the riotous captain 
demoralizes the men of the village, ghosts and all, with his 
rum and his jokes. After a stay of some time, one night 
in a storm the villagers look out. 

Over our heads, sailing very comfortably through the windy 
stars, was the ship that had passed the summer in landlord's 
field. Her portholes and her windows were ablaze with lights 
and there was a noise of singing and fiddling on her decks. 
. . . They do say that since then the turnips on landlord's 
field have tasted of rum. 

Olive Harper tells ^ of a reporter who is invited by a 
cordial spook — who has been a New York social leader — to 
a spectral banquet and ball underneath Old Trinity. She 
satirizes human foibles and weaknesses, showing ghosts 
that gossip and gormandize, simper and swear as they did 
in life. They learn to play poker, dance, and kill time as 
they used to do. Frank R. Stockton has written several 
delicious drolleries of supematuralism, as The Transferred 
Ghost, where the spook of a living man, the irascible 

' In The Sociable Ghost. 



112 Modern Ghosts 

uncle of the charming Madeline, terrifies the young suitor 
who lacks courage to propose. The audacious and ever- 
present ghost swings his feet from the porch railing, invisi- 
ble to the girl as inaudible by her, and breaks in on the 
conversation in a most disconcerting way. The young 
man at last cries out in desperation, ''What are you wait- 
ing for? I have nothing to say to you?" w^hereat the girl, 
who has been undoubtedly waiting to hear the proposal 
the embarrassed youth was trying to make, thinks he is 
speaking to her and departs in high dudgeon. On a later 
occasion the specter comes to announce to him that he has 
got his transfer and may be somebody else's ghost instead 
of that of the man who was expected to die and didn't, 
when the lover cries out, "I wish to Heaven you were 
mine!" And Madeline, melting in a sigh, whispers, "I 
am yours ! ' ' The sequel to this is also comic. ^ 

Brander Matthews has several stories of humorous super- 
naturalism. Rival Ghosts being the account of ancestral 
spooks belonging to a young bridegroom, and who resent 
being brought into enforced companionship by his sudden 
elevation to a title, since one ghost must haunt the house 
and one the heir. The ingenious groom, at last harassed 
to invention by the continual squabbling of the ghosts, 
brings about a wedding between them. This is the only 
instance I have found of a wedding between two specters, 
though there are various cases on record of marriage 
between one living and one spectral personage. John 
Kendrick Bangs devotes several volumes to the doings 
and sayings of spooks, describing parties in a house-boat 
on the Styx, where the shades of the departed great gather 
together and engage in festivities and discussions, and 
showing types of water-ghosts and various kinds of spooks. 
The humorous ghost is a more frequent person than one 
would suppose without givmg some thought to the subject, 

^ The Spectral Mortgage. 



Modern Ghosts 113 

for many writers have sharpened their wits on the comic 
haunt. 

As may be seen from the examples mentioned, the ghost 
has made perceptible progress in psychology. The mod- 
em apparition is much more complex in personality than 
the crude early type, and shows much more variety. 
The up-to-date spook who has a chance to talk things over 
with William James, and knows the labyrinths of the hu- 
man mind is much better adapted to inflict psychal terrors 
than the illiterate specter of the past. He can evolve 
mental tortures more subtle and varied than ever, or he 
can amuse a downcast mortal by his gambols. 

Stories of to-day show a decided advance over the 
Gothic in the matter of motives for spectral appearance. 
There are, it is true, certain motives in common between 
them, but the present-day spirit is less limited, for he has 
gained the new without loss of the old, if he wishes to keep 
the old. The principal impulse that impelled classical 
shades to walk the earth was to request burial, since lack- 
ing that he could not enter into the abode of the dead. 
This appears frequently also in Gothic romance. It is 
shown but little in recent fiction, perhaps because the 
modern ghost is reconciled to cremation or is blithely 
indifferent to what becomes of his body since it no longer 
rules him. The Queen of Hearts is one of the few instances 
of its use in modern fiction, for it is a vanishing motive 
for the most part. Gothic ghosts were also wont to 
return to show the hiding-place of treasure, but that, 
too, is dying out as an incentive to haunting. The 
prosaic explanation here may be that now persons put 
their treasure in safety deposits, hence there is scant 
occasion for mystery concerning its location after death. 
Gothic spooks came back on occasion to reveal parentage, 
for parents, like valuables, were frequently mislaid in 



114 Modern Ghosts 

terror romance. This is not so important now, since vital 
statistics usually keep such matters duly recorded, yet 
instances do sometimes occur. 

Ghosts in the terror romance came to make requests, 
apart from the petition for burial, which tendency is still 
observed on the part of later spooks, though not to the 
same extent as formerly. The requests are psychologically 
interesting, as they usually relate to simple ties of affection, 
illustrated by the mother- spirit ' who asks her friend to 
take her children. Gothic spirits came back often to make 
revelations concerning the manner of their death, which is 
not often the case now, though it does sometimes happen. 
And Dickens shows us one ghost returning to influence 
the jury that is trying a man for murder. Specters used 
to appear to forewarn the living against impending danger, 
which impulse is rather lacking in later fiction though it 
still occurs. The curious element of futurity enters into 
several of these ghostly warnings, as in Dickens's The 
Signal Man where the apparition presages the man's death, 
as in Algernon Blackwood's story ^ is related the incident 
of a man who saw the two Indians scalp a white man and 
drag his body away, at last crying out, "I saw the body, 
and the face was my own. " Warning spirits of futurity are 
seen in On the Stairs, where each man beholds his own des- 
tiny, — one seeing the spectral snake that afterwards kills 
him in a hunting expedition, one the ghost of a Zulu, the 
savage that almost destroys him some time afterwards, 
and the last the ghost of a young woman in a blue dress, 
the woman whom he marries and who hounds him to his 
death. She presently sees her own fate, too, but what it 
is the author does not tell us. One curious incident in the 
story is the instantaneous appearance on the stairs of the 
woman herself and her ghostly double, one in a white 
dress, one in the fatal blue. This sort of spectral warning, 

' In The Substitute. ' In A Haunted Island. 



Modern Ghosts 115 

this wireless service for the conveyance of bad news and 
hint of threatening danger, serves to link the ghost story 
of the present with those of the past. The records of the 
Psychical Society show hundreds of such instances, and 
much use is made in fiction of plots hinging on such motif. 
Scott's White Lady of Avenel appears as a death portent, 
as also the " Bahr-geist" in another novel. 

The revenge ghost looms large in fiction as in the drama. 
He was the most important figure in Elizabethan as in 
classical drama, and Shakespeare's ghosts are principally 
of that class. A terrible example of the type is in Robert 
Lovell Beddoes' Death's Jest-Book, that extraordinary ex- 
ample of dramatic supematuralism, where the ghost of the 
murdered man comes back embodied from the grave and 
is an active character to the end of the play. He is sum- 
moned to life through a hideous mistake, the murderer 
having asked the magician to call up the spirit of his dead 
wife, but the body of his victim having been secretly buried 
beside her so that the murderer may have no rest even in 
the grave, the awful accusing spirit rises to confront him, 
instead of his wife's phantom. The revenge ghost is both 
objective and subjective in his manifestation and his 
impelling motive adds a touch of frozen horror to his 
appearance. He appears in various forms, as dismem- 
bered parts of the body — illustrated in the stories above 
referred to, — in a horrific invisibility, in a shape of fear 
visible only to the guilty, or in a body so objectified as to 
seem absolutely real and living to others beside the one 
haunted. The apparently casual, idle figure that strolls 
about the docks and streets in The Detective, seen by 
different persons and taken for a man interested only in 
his own pursuits, is a revenge ghost so relentless that he 
hounds his victim from country to country, at last kilUng 
him by sheer force of terror as he sits on his bed at night, 
leaving the imprint of his body on the mattress beside the 



ii6 Modern Ghosts 

dead man whose face is rigid with mad horror. He has 
come back in physical embodiment to avenge the betrayal 

of his daughter. Ambrose Bierce shows us many spirits 
animated by cold and awful revenge, sometimes visible 
and sometimes unseen, as where a soldier killed for strik- 
ing an officer answers, "Here!" to the roll-call, just at 
which moment a mysterious bullet from nowhere strikes 
the officer through the heart. ' Crawford sends a drowned 
sailor back in wet oil-skins to slay his twin brother who has 
impersonated him to win the girl they both loved. When 
the two bodies wash ashore one is a newly dead corpse, 
the other a skeleton in oil skins; while the dreadful rattle 
of the accusing lump of lead in the wife's skull in another 
story is a turn of the screw of her horrid revenge. The 
revenge ghost in modern fiction is more varied in forms of 
manifestation, at times more subtle in suggestion and 
ghostly psychology, than the conventionalized type of the 
drama and remains one of the most dreadful of the forms 
of fear. 

In general, the modern stories show a greater intensity 
of power in employing the motives that earlier forms had 
used as well as far greater range of motivation. The 
earlier ghosts were limited in their impulses, and their 
psychology was comparatively simple. Not so with the 
apparitions of to-day. They have a far wider range of 
motives, are moved by more complex impulses and mixed 
motivation in many cases difficult to analyze. 

The Gothic ghost had some conscience about whom he 
haunted. He had too much reserve to force himself 
needlessly upon those that had no connection with his 
past. If he knew someone that deserved punishment for 
wrong done him or his, he tried to haunt him and let 
others alone. The modern ghost is not so considerate. 
He is actuated in many cases by sheer evil that wreaks it- 

* In His Two Military Executions. 



Modern Ghosts 117 

self upon anyone in range. Death gives a terrible im- 
mortality and access of power to those whose lives have 
been particularly evil, and the results are dangerous to 
society. Dark discarnate hate manifests itself to those 
within reach. Algernon Blackwood would have us believe 
that all around us are reservoirs of unspeakable horror and 
that any moment of weakness on our part may bring 
down the hosts of damnation upon us. This is illustrated 
in such stories as With Intent to Steal, where the spirit of 
a man who has hanged himself comes back with hypnotic 
power forcing others to take their lives in the same way, 
or in another,^ showing power exerted viciously against 
human beings in a certain building, or still another^ 
where the witchcraft holds the village in thrall, and else- 
where. Ambrose Bierce, Bram Stoker, F. Marion Craw- 
ford, and Arthur Machen have written a number of stories 
bringing out this side of ghostly psychology, showing the 
bands of outlawed spirits that prey on society. There 
are spectral bandits and bravos that answer the call of 
any force hostile to man, or act of their own accord from 
an impulse of malicious mischief. 

The jealous ghost is somewhat common of late, showing 
that human emotions are carried over into the life beyond. 
In various stories we find the dead wife interfering to 
prevent a second marriage, or to make life wretched for 
the interloper even after the ceremony. But the most 
extreme case of jealousy — even exceeding the instance 
of the man whose wife and physician conspired to give him 
an overdose to put him out of the way and who is frantic 
to prevent their marriage — is found in Arnold Bennett's 
novel, The Ghost. Here the spirit of a man who has madly 
loved an opera-singer haunts every suitor of hers and 
either drives him to abandon his courtship or kills him, 
till finally the singer begs the ghost to spare the man she 

* The Empty House. ' Secret Worship. 



ii8 Modern Ghosts 

loves, which he sadly does, and departs. This is remi- 
niscent of one of Marie de France's lais. 

The varying motives for appearance may be illustrated 
by reference to a few ghosts in modern fiction, such as the 
woman ^ who comes to drive away a writer's sense of 
humor, — than which there could be no greater spiritual 
brutality, — and set him to writing vile, debased tragedies. 
Perhaps she has transferred her attentions to other authors 
than the one in the story ! Other instances are the little 
Gray Ghost in Cornelia A. P. Comer's story^ by that name, 
who impels a stranger to take her child from an orphan 
asylum and adopt it, much against his will; the immortal 
lovers that haunt a woman who has made a marriage of 
convenience — which has turned out to be a marriage of 
inconvenience for her husband^; the talkative spook in 
Andrew Lang's In Castle Perilous, that discourses learnedly 
on its own materialization, speaking in technical terms, 
pokes fun at Shakespeare for the glow-worm on a winter 
night, and the cockcrow in his Hamlet, and — but these are 
perhaps enough. If one may judge from ghostly fiction, 
death subtracts nothing from human emotion but rather 
adds to it, so that the spectral impulses are more poignant 
and intense. The darker passions are retained with 
cumulative power, and there is a terrible immortality of 
hate, of jealousy and revenge. 

There is no more impressive revenant than one Cole- 
ridge gives in his Wanderings of Cain, the mournful phan- 
tom of Abel appearing to Cain and his little son, Enos. 
The child says to his father, "I saw a man in unclean 
garments and he uttered a sweet voice, full of lamen- 
tations. " Cain asks the unhappy spirit, "But didst thou 
not find favor in the sight of the Lord thy God ? " to which 
the shape answers, "The Lord is God of the living only. 
The dead have another God!" 

* In A Psychic Invasion. ' In The Long Chamber. 



Modern Ghosts 119 

** Cain ran after the shape and the shape fled shrieking 
over the sands, and the sands rose Hke white mists behind 
the steps of Cain but the feet of him that was like Abel dis- 
turbed not the sands. " 

One of the most interesting phases of comparative 
ghost-lore is the study of the intricate personality of 
specters. With respect to dual personality the late 
supernatural stories are curiously reminiscent of the 
animistic belief that a ghost is a double of the mortal, a 
vapory projection of his actual body, to be detached at 
will during life and permanently at death. I do not know 
of any instances of doubles in classical literature, nor is 
the idea used in Gothic romance. Likewise Shakespeare's 
ghosts are all spirits of persons safely dead. It remained 
for the modern writer with his expertness in psychology 
and psychiatry to evoke the ghosts of the living persons, 
the strange cases of dual personality and of separate per- 
sonalities supematurally merged into one, and those in- 
explicable ghosts of subliminal memories. All these forms 
appear in elusive analysis, in complex suggestiveness, 
in modern uncanny stories, and constitute one of the dis- 
tinct marks of advance over the earlier types. 

The double, a frequent figure in English fiction, bears 
a resemblance to the Doppelganger of German folk-tales. 
Numerous examples of dual personality, of one being 
appearing in two forms, are seen, with different twists 
to the idea, yet much alike. It has been suggested that 
these stories have their germinal origin in Calderon's 
play, ' where a man is haunted by himself. Poe's William 
Wilson is a tense and tragic story of a man pursued by 
his double, till in desperation he kills him, only to realize 
that he has slain his better self, his conscience. His 
duplicate cries out, "Henceforward thou art also dead, 

^ El Embozado. 



120 Modern Ghosts 

dead to the world, to Heaven and to hope! In me thou 
didst exist and in my death, see by this thine image, which 
is thine own, how utterl}^ thou hast murdered thyself!" 
Stevenson's Markheijn shows in the person of the stranger 
the incarnate conscience, an embodiment of a man's 
nobler self that leads him through the labyrinth of self- 
examination to the knowledge of the soul's truth. The 
stranger tests the murderer by offering him a way of 
escape, by suggesting further crime to him, by showing 
him relentlessly what the consequence of each act will be, 
till in despair jMarkheim, realizing that his life is hope- 
lessly weak and involved, decides to surrender it rather 
than to sin further. Step by step the nameless visitor 
leads him, IMarkheim shuddering back from the evil that 
is suggested, thinking the stranger is a demonic tempter, 
till at last the transfigured face shows him to be the nobler 
angel. Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is, of course, 
the best-known instance of this sort of dual personality, 
this walking forth in physical form of the evil in one's 
own nature, with a separate existence of its own. No 
writer could hope to express this idea more powerfully 
than has been done in this chemical allegory, this biological 
dissection of the soul. The thrill of suspense, the seem- 
ingly inexplicable mystery, the dramatic tenseness of the 
closing scenes make this sermon in story form unforget- 
table. Kipling has given a striking stor}^ of a man haunted 
by his own phantom body, in At the End of the Passage. 
His own figure slipped silently before him as he went 
through his lonely house. "When he came in to dinner 
he found himself seated at the table. The vision rose and 
walked out hastily. Except that it cast no shadow it was 
in all respects real." The horror of this haunting specter 
of himself, this double of his own body and soul, drives 
the man to suicide, after which a peculiar twist of horror 
is given by the detail at the close, of the discovery by his 



Modern Ghosts 121 

comrade, of the man's own photograph imprinted on the 
dead retina and reproduced by the camera hours after his 
death. In JuHan Hawthorne's allegory, ^ the dead man's 
spirit meets the devil, who is his own evil self incarnate. 
Edith Wharton's Triumph of Night reveals a ghost of a 
living man standing behind his double's chair, visible to 
the person opposite and showing on the ghostly face the 
evil impulses that the living countenance cleverly masks. 
John Kendrick Bangs has his hero say,^ "I came face to 
face with myself, with that other self in which I recognized, 
developed to the fullest extent, every bit of my capacity 
for an evil life," and Blackwood^ relates the meeting of a 
musician and his ghostly double in an opera hall. Mr. 
Titbottom,4 through the power of his magic spectacles 
reflecting his image in a mirror, sees himself as he really is, 
as he looks to God, and flees horror-stricken from the 
sight. This symbolic representation is akin to the Pro- 
phetic Pictures of Hawthorne, where a woman's griefs and 
marks of age are shown in her pictured face before they 
are revealed in her actual experience, a pictured futurity. 
The most impressive instance of this relation between a 
human being and his portrait is in Oscar Wilde's Picture 
of Dorian Grey, that strange study of a man's real nature 
expressing itself on his painted likeness, while the living 
face bears no mark of sin or shame or age, until the tragic 
revelation at the end. Edith Wharton ^ also represents a 
supernatural dualism, the woman's statue showing on its 
marble face the changing horror of her own stricken 
countenance. The White Sleep of Auher Hum is a curious 
story of a spiritual double, a psychological study of a man 
who was in two places at once, seen by various persons who 

^ Lovers in Heaven. ' In Thurlow's Christmas Story. 

3 In The Man from the Gods. 

4 In George William Curtis's Prue and I. 

5 In her Duchess at Prayer. 



122 Modern Ghosts 

knew him in each case, being killed in a train wreck many 
miles away from his room where he was lying asleep in his 
bed, — a sleep that knows no waking.^ 

Distinct from the expression of one personality in two 
bodies, the supernatural merging of two separate person- 
alities into one appears in recent ghostly fiction. It forms 
a subtle psychologic study and is uncannily effective. 
H. G. Wells's Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham is a peculiar 
narrative of a transfer of personality as the result of a 
mysterious drink, by which an old man takes possession 
of a young man's body, leaving the youth to inhabit the 
worn-out shell of the dotard. Algernon Blacla\^ood in 
The Terror oj the Twins describes a supernatural merging 
of two natures into one by the power of a dead father's 
insane curse. The younger son loses his vitality, his 
mind, his personaHty, all of which is supermortally given 
to his older brother, while the deprived son dies a drivel- 
ling idiot of sheer inertia and utter absence of vital 
power. Mary Heaton Vorse^ describes a neurotic woman 
who comes back from the grave to obsess and possess the 
interloper in her home, through the immortal force of her 
jealousy, making the living woman actually become the 

* Other stories of double personality are The Ivory Gate, by Walter 
Besant; The Man with a Shadow, by George M. Fenn; The Jolly Corner, by 
Henry James; The Transferred Ghost, by Frank R. Stockton: On the Stairs, 
by Katherine Fullerton Gerould; Elixire des Teufels, by E. T. A. Hoffmann; 
Howe's Masquerade, by Hawthorne; The Recent Carnival of Crime in Con- 
necticutt, by Mark Twain; The Queen of Sheba, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich; 
The Doppelgdnger, by Elizabeth Bisland Wetmore. 

Georg Brandes, in his article, "Romantic RedupHcation and Psychology," 
in Main Currents of Nineteenth Century Literature, points out the preva- 
lence of this motif in German fiction. He says: "It finds its first 
expression in Jean Paul's Leihgeber Schappe, and is to be found in almost all 
of Hoffmann's tales, reaching its climax in Die Elixire des Teufels. It crops 
up in the writings of all the Romanticists, in Kleist's Amphitryton, in 
Achim von Amim's Die Beiden-Waldemar, in Chamisso's Erscheinung. 
Brentano treats it comically in Die Mehreren WehmOller. 

' In The Second Wife. 



Modern Ghosts 123 

reincarnation of the dead wife. This story naturally 
suggests Poe's Ligeia which is the climax of ghostly horror 
of this motif, with its thesis that "man doth not yield 
himself to the angels nor unto death utterly save through 
the weakness of his own feeble will " expressed in a terrible 
crescendo of ghastly horror. Poe's Morella is a similar 
study of the supernatural merging of an exterior per- 
sonality into a living body, where the dead mother and 
her child are literally one flesh and one spirit. Black- 
wood's The Return is an example of the compact-ghost, 
that comes back at the hour of death to reveal himself to 
his friend as he long ago promised he would. The dead 
artist manifests himself through a sudden and wonderful 
realization of the beauty of the world to which the materi- 
alistic friend has heretofore been blinded and indifferent. 
Feeling this sudden rapturous sweep of beauty through 
his soul, the living man knows that his artist friend is 
dead and that his spirit has become a part of his own 
being. In the same manner the little lonely soul in 
Granville Barker's wonderful piece of symbolism, Souls 
on Fifth, enters into the being of the man who has the 
understanding heart and continues her existence as a part 
of him. 

An essentially modern type of ghost story is that which 
has its explanation on the basis of subliminal memories. 
It seems that all around us are reservoirs of ancestral 
memories, records of the vital thoughts and actions of the 
long dead, psychical incarnations of their supreme 
moments, their striking hours, into which the living at 
times stumble and are submerged. Some slight spiritual 
accident may bring down upon mortals the poignant 
suffering and bliss of the dead in whose personality they 
are curiously duplicated. These ghosts of dead selves 
from the past are different from the doubles that are 
projections of the living, or prophetic specters of the 



124 Modern Ghosts 

future, and are clearly distinguished. The Borderland, 
by Francis Parsons, tells of a young army officer who is 
obsessed by subliminal self, the ghost of his grandfather. 
He feels that he is his grandfather, living another existence, 
yet he lacks the pluck, the manhood, that the old pioneer 
possessed. At a crisis in his military affairs, the old 
frontiersman comes visibly forward to give him the 
courage that is needed, after which he manifests himself 
no more. The scene of this subliminal haunting is a 
Texas prairie, during a border fight, rather an unghostly 
setting yet one which makes the supernatural seem more 
actual. Arthur Johnson' presents the case ot a man who- 
sees the ghosts of ancestral memory in a vivid form. He 
sees and hears his own double wildly accuse his wife — 
who is the double of his own— betrothed, after having 
killed her lover. His hand is wounded and the fingers 
leave bloodstains as they snatch at the gray chiffon 
round his wife's throat. After a fit of unconsciousness 
into which he falls is over, the modern man awakes to 
find his hand strangely wounded, and on the floor of the 
upper room he picks up a scrap of bloodstained gray 
chiffon! Black^^ood's Old Clothes shows a little girl 
obsessed by subliminal memories. She is haunted by 
terrible experiences in which she says that she and some 
of those around her have been concerned. She goes into 
convulsions if anything is fastened around her waist, and 
she cries out that some cruel man has shut her up in the 
wall to die and has cut off Philip's hands so that he cannot 
save her. Investigations bring to light the facts that a 
long-dead ancestress, living in the same house, had been 
walled up alive by her husband after he had cut off her 
lover's hands before her face. The skeleton is found 
chained by the waist inside the ancient wall. Black- 
wood's Ancient Sorceries depicts the ghosts of buried 

■ In Mr. Eberdeen's House. 



Modern Ghosts 125 

life, of a whole village enchanted by the past and living 
over again the witchcraft of the long ago. As John Silence, 
the psychic doctor, tells of the Englishman who drops 
casually into the village and is drawn into the magic: 

Vesin was swept into the vortex of forces arising out of the 
intense activities of a past life and lived over again a scene 
in which he had often played a part centuries ago. For 
strong actions set up forces that are so slow to exhaust them- 
selves that they may be said in a sense never to die. In this 
case they were not complete enough to render the illusion 
perfect, so the little man was confused between the present 
and the past. 

That stor}'- of unusual psychical experience, An Ad- 
venture, by two Oxford women, can be explained on no 
other basis than some such theory as this. The book 
claims to be a truthful account of a happening at Versailles, 
where two English women, teachers and daughters of 
clergymen, saw in broad daylight the ghosts of the past, 
the figures of Marie Antoinette and her court. The writ- 
ers offer the explanation that they stumbled into a sort 
of pocket of the unhappy queen's memories and saw the 
past relived before their eyes because she had felt it so 
keenly and vividly long ago. Other instances might be 
given, but these are sufficient to illustrate the type. 
Such stories have a curious haunting power and are 
among the most effective narratives. The idea is modern 
and illustrates the complexity of later thought as compared 
with the simplicity of earlier times. 

A comparative study of ghost stories leads one to the 
conclusion that the ghost is the most modern of ancients 
and the most ancient of moderns. In some respects the 
present specter is like and in some unlike the previous 
forms. Ghosts, whether regarded as connective or purely 
subjective, are closely related to the percipients' thoughts. 



126 Modern Ghosts 

Primitive times produced a primitive supematuralism 
and the gradual advance in intellectual development 
has brought about a heightening and complexity of the 
weird stor\-. 'Tis in ourselves that ghosts are thus and 
so: 

The spook of to-day is of a higher ner\'ous organization 
than his forbears. In many instances the latter-day 
ghost is so distracted by circumstances that he hardly 
knows where he's at. as for instance, the ghost in such case 
as The Tryst, by Ahce Brown, where a man is thought to 
be drowned and his ghost comes out to comfort his 
sweetheart, only to have the drowned man brought back 
to life presently; and in The Woman frani Yonder, by 
Stephen French Whitman, where a scientist with imper- 
tinent zeal brings life back to the body of a woman who 
had bled to death while Hannibal was crossing the Alps 
and been buried in a glacier tiQ the glacier spat her out. 
Xow, what was the status of those ghosts? Was there a 
ghost if the person wasn't really dead? But if a woman 
isn't dead after she has been in an ice-pack for two 
thousand years or thereabouts what surety is there for the 
standing of any ghost ? 

The apparitions of to-day have more lines of interest 
than the ancient ghosts. The Gothic specter was a one- 
idea creature, with a single-track brain. He was not a 
ghost -of -all- work as are some of the later spooks. He was 
a simple-souled being who felt a call to haunt somebody 
for some purpose or other, so he just went and did it. 
The specters of to-day are more versatile, — they can turn 
their hand to any kind of haunting that is desired and 
show an admirable power of adaptability, though there 
are highly developed speciahsts as well. The psychology 
of the primitive ghost and of the Gothic specter was 
simple. They knew only the elemental passions of love 
and hate. Gothic spooks haimted the villain or villainess 



Modern Ghosts 127 

to foil them in their wicked designs or punish them for 
past misdeeds, or hovered over the hero or heroine to 
advise, comfort, and chaperon them. But the modern 
ghosts are not satisfied with such sit-by-the-fire jobs as 
these. They Hke to keep in the van of activity and do 
what mortals do. They run the whole scale of human 
motions and emotions and one needs as much handy 
psychology to interpret their hauntings as to read George 
Meredith. They are actuated by subtle motivations of 
jealousy, ardent love, tempered friendship, curiosity, 
mischief, vindictiveness, revenge, hate, gratitude, and all 
other conceivable impulses. The Billy Sunday sort of 
ghost who wants to convert the world, the philanthropic 
spirit who wants to help humanity, the socialist specter 
that reads the magazine, the friendly visitor that sends its 
hands back to wash the dishes, the little shepherd lad that 
returns to tend the sheep, are among the new concepts in 
fiction of the supernatural. The ghost of awful malice, to 
be explained only on the basis of compound interest of 
evil stored up for many years, is a new force. 

Though the ghostly narrative has shifted its center of 
gravity from the novel to the short story since Gothic 
times, and many more of the modern instances are in that 
form, the supernatural novel has recently taken on a new 
lease of life. Honors are almost even between the English 
and the American ghost story, as most of the representa- 
tive writers on each side turn their pen at some time to 
write terror tales. The ghost has never lost his power over 
the human mind. Judging from the past, one may say 
that the popularity of the ghost story will continue 
undiminished and will perhaps increase. Certainly there 
has been a new influx of stories within later times. What 
mines of horror yet remain untouched for writers of the 
future, it would be hard to say, yet we do not fear for the 
exhaustion of the type. On the contrary, ghosts in 



128 Modern Ghosts 

fiction are becoming so numerous that one wonders if the 
Malthusian theory will not in time affect them. We are 
too fond of being fooled by phantoms to surrender them, 
for "the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out the 
spine" is an awesome joy. For ourselves, we are content 
for the present to function on one plane, but we love to 
adventure on another plane through spectral substitutes. 
We may give up the mortal but we'll not willingly give 
up the ghost. We love him. We believe in him. Our at- 
titude towards specters is much like that of the little black 
boy that Ellis Parker Butler tells about in Dey Ain't No 
Ghosts, w^ho sees a terrifying array of "all de sperits in de 
world, an' all de ha'nt in de world, an' all de hobgoblins 
in de world, an' all spicters in de world, an' all de ghostes 
in de world," come out to bring a fearsome message to a 
frightened pickaninny. 

De king ob de ghostes, whut name old Skull-an'-Bones, he 
place he hand on de head ob li'l black Mose, an' de hand feel 
like a wet rag, an' he say : 

"Dey ain'no ghosts!" 

An' one ob de hairs on de head ob li'l black Mose turn' white. 

An' de monstrous big ha'nt what he name Bloody Bones he 
lay he hand on de head ob li'l black Mose, an' he hand feel 
like a toad-stool in de cool ob de day, an' he say : 

"Dey ain' no ghosts!" 

An' anudder one ob de hairs whut on de head ob li'l black 
Mose turn' white. 

An' a heejus sperit whut he name Moldy Pa'm place he 
hand on de head ob li'l black Mose, an' he hand feel like de 
yunner side ob a lizard, an' he say: 

"Dey ain' no ghosts!" 

And so on through the assembly. Small wonder that 
the terrified youngster is loath to go up to the loft to bed 
alone that night and demurs to the demand. 



Modern Ghosts 129 

So he ma she say, "Git erlong wid you ! Whut you skeered 
ob when dey ain' no ghosts?" 

An' li'l black Mose he scrooge an' he twist an' he pucker 
up he mouf an' he rub he eyes an' prisintly he say right low: 

"I ain' skeered ob de ghosts whut am, ca'se dey ain' no 
ghosts." 

" Den whut am you skeered ob?" ask he ma. 

"Nuffin," say de li'l black boy whut he name am Mose, 
"but I jes' feel kinder oneasy 'bout de ghosts whut ain't!" 

Jes' lack white folks. Jes' lack white folks. 



CHAPTER IV 

XHe Devil and His Allies 

" X^ HOSTS are few but devils are plenty," said Cotton 
I m Mather, but his saying would need to be inverted 
to fit present-day English fiction. Now^ we have 
ghosts in abundance but devils are scarce. In fact, they 
bid fair to become extinct in our romances, at least in 
the form that is easily recognizable. Satan will probably 
soon be in solution, identified merely as a state of mind. 
He has been so Burbanked of late, with his daemonic 
characteristics removed and himianities added that, save 
for sporadic reversion to type, the old familiar demon 
is almost a vanished form. The modern mind seems to 
cling with a new fondness to the ghost but has turned the 
cold shoulder to the devil, perhaps because many modern- 
ists believe more in the human and less in the supernatural 
— and after all, ghosts are human and devils are not. 
The demon has disported himself in various forms in 
literature, from the scarlet fiend of monkish legend, the 
nimble imp and titanic nature-devil of folk-lore to Mil- 
ton's epic, majestic Satan, and Goethe's mocking Mephis- 
topheles, passing into allegoric, symbolic, and satiric 
figures in later fiction. He has been an impressive charac- 
ter in the drama, the epic, the novel, in poetry, and the 
short story. We have seen him as a loathly, brutish 
demon in Dante, as a superman, as an intellectual satirist, 
and as a human being appealing to our sympathy. He 

130 



The Devil and His Allies 131 

has gradually lost his epic qualities and become human. 
He is not present in literature now to the extent to which 
he was known in the past, is not so impressive a figure as 
heretofore, and at times when he does appear his person- 
ality is so ambiguously set forth that it requires close 
literary analysis to prove his presence. 

In this chapter the devil will be discussed with reference 
to his appearances on earth, while in a later division he 
will be seen in his own home. It would be hard to say 
with certainty when and where the devil originated, yet 
he undoubtedly belongs to one of our first families and is 
said to have been born theologically in Persia about the 
year 900 B.C. He has appeared under various aliases, as 
Ahriman of the Zoroastrian system, Pluto in classical 
mythology, vSatan, Beelzebub, Prince of Darkness, and by 
many other titles. In his Address to the De'il Burns 
invokes him thus: 

"Oh, Thou! whatever title suit thee, — 
Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick or Cloutie!" 

He has manifested himself in fiction under diverse names, 
as Demon, Lucifer, Satan, Mephistopheles, Prince Lucio, 
The Man in Black, and so forth, but whatever the name he 
answers to, he is known in every land and has with 
astonishing adaptability made himself at home in every 
literature. 

The devil has so changed his form and his manner of 
appearance in later literature that it is hard to identify 
him as his ancient self. In early stories he was heralded 
by supernatural thunder and lightning and accompanied 
by a strong smell of sulphur. He dressed in character 
costume, sometimes in red, sometimes in black, but always 
indubitably diabolic. He wore horns, a forked tail, and 
cloven hoofs and was a generally unprepossessing creature 
whom anyone could know for a devil. Now his r61e is 



132 The Devil and His Allies 

not so typical and his garb not so declarative. He wears 
an evening suit, a scholar's gown, a parson's robe, a 
hunting coat, with equal ease, and it is sometimes difficult 
to tell the devil from the hero of a modem ston'. He has 
been deodorized and no longer reeks wamingly of the Pit. 

The mediaeval mind conceived of the devil as a sort of 
combination of mythologic satyr and rehgious dragon. 
It is interesting to note how the pagan devil-myths have 
been engrafted upon the ideas of Christianity, to fade out 
very slowly and by degrees. In monkish legends the devil 
was an energetic person who would hang round a Ukely 
soul for years, if need be, on the chance of nabbing him. 
Many monkish legends have come down to us. 

The diabolic element in English folk-lore shows a rich 
field for study. The devil here as in the monkish legendry 
appears as an enemy of souls, a tireless tempter. He lies 
in wait for an}' unwar\' utterance, and the least mention 
of his name, any thoughtless expletive, such as "The devil 
take me if — " brings instant response from him to clinch 
the bargain. Yet the devil of rustic folk-lore is of a 
bucolic dullness, less clever than in any phase of literature, 
more gullible, more easily imposed on. English folk-lore, 
especially the Celtic branches, shows the devil as very 
closely related to nature. He was wont to work off his 
surplus energ}^ or his wrath by disturbing the landscape, 
and many stories of his prankish pique have come down 
to us. If anything vexed him he might stamp so hard 
upon a plain that the print of his cloven hoof would be 
imprinted permanently. He was fond of drinking out of 
pure springs and leaving them cursed with sulphur, and 
he sometimes showed annoyance by biting a section out 
of a mountain. Devil's Bit Mountain in Ireland being 
one of the instances. In general, any peculiarity of 
nature might be attributed to the activities of Auld 
Homie. 



The Devil and His Allies 133 

The devil has always been a pushing, forward sort of 
person, so he was not content with being handed round by 
word of mouth in monkish legend or rustic folk-lore, but 
must worm his way into literature in general. Since then 
many ink-pots have been emptied upon him besides the 
one that Luther hurled against his cloister wall. The devil 
is seen frequently in the miracle plays, showing grotes- 
querie, the beginnings of that sardonic humor he is to 
display in more important works later. In his appearance 
in literature the devil is largely anthropomorphic. Man 
creates the devil in his own image, one who is not merely 
personal but racial as well, reflecting his creator. In 
monkish tradition an adversary in wait for souls, in rustic 
folk-lore a rollicking buffoon with waggish pranks, in 
miracle plays reflecting the mingled seriousness and comic 
elements of popular beliefs, he mirrors his maker. But it 
is in the great poems and dramas and stories that we find 
the more personal aspects of devil-production, and it is 
these epic and dramatic concepts of the devil that have 
greatly influenced modern Action. While the Gothic 
romance was but lightly touched by the epic super- 
naturalism, the literature since that time has reflected it 
more, and the Satanic characters of Dante, Milton, 
Calderon, Marlowe, and Goethe have cast long shadows 
over modern fiction. The recent revival of interest in 
Dante has doubtless had its effect here. 

Burns in his Address to the De'il shows his own kindly 
heart and honest though ofttimes misdirected impulses 
by suggesting that there is still hope for the devil to repent 
and trusting that he may do so yet. Mrs. Browning, in 
her Drama of Exile, likewise shows in Lucifer some appeal 
to our sympathies, reflecting the pitying heart of the 
writer, — showing a certain kinship to Milton's Satan yet 
with weakened intellectual power. She makes Gabriel 
say to him : 



134 The Devil and His Allies 

"Angel of the sin, 
Such as thou standest, — pale in the drear light 
Which rounds the rebel's work with Maker's wrath — 
Thou shalt be an Idea to all soiils, 
A monumental, melancholy gloom. 
Seen down all ages whence to mark despair 
And measure out the distances from good." 

Byron's devil in A Vision of Judgment is, like Caliban's 
ideas of Setebos, "altogether such an one" as Byron 
conceived himself to be. He is a terrible figure, whose 

"Fierce and unfathomable thoughts engraved 
Eternal wrath on his immortal face." 

He shows diabolical sarcasm w^hen he says, "I've kings 
enough below, God knows!" And how like Oscar Wilde 
is the devil he pictures to us in his symbolic story. The 
Fisherman and his Soul. The prince of darkness who 
appears to the young fisherman that wishes to sell his 
soul to the devil is " a man dressed in a suit of black velvet 
cut in Spanish fashion. His proud face was strangely 
pale, but his lips were like a proud red flower. He seemed 
weary and was leaning back toying in a listless manner 
with the pommel of his saddle." When the fisherman 
unthoughtedly utters a prayer that baffles the fiend for 
the time, the demon mounts his jennet with the silver har- 
ness and rides away, still with the proud, disdainful face, 
sad with a hlase weariness unlike the usual alertness of 
the devil. He has a sort of Blessed Damozel droop to 
his figure, and the bored patience of a lone man at an 
afternoon tea. Wilde shows us some little mocking red 
devils in another of his stories, ' and The Picture of Dorian 
Grey is a concept of diabolism. 

Scott in The Talisman puts a story of descent from the 

' A Legend oj Sharp. 



The Devil and His Allies 135 

Evil One in the mouth of the Saracen, the legend of the 
spirits of evil who formed a league with the cruel Zohauk, 
by which he gained a daily sacrifice of blood to feed two 
hideous serpents that had become a part of himself. 
One day seven sisters of wonderful beauty are brought, 
whose loveliness appeals to the immortals. In the midst 
of supernatural manifestations the earth is rent and seven 
young men appear. The leader says to the eldest sister : 

I am Cothreb, king of the subterranean world. I and my 
brethren are of those who, created out of elementary fire, 
disdained even at the command of Omnipotence, to do homage 
to a clod of earth because it is called man. Thou may est 
have heard of us as cruel, unrelenting, and persecuting. It is 
false. We are by nature kind and generous, vengeful only 
when insulted, cruel only when affronted. We are true to those 
that trust us; and we have heard the invocations of thy 
father the sage Mithrasp, who wisely worships not only the 
Origin of Good, but that which is called the Source of Evil. 
You and your sisters are on the eve of death ; but let each give 
to us one hair from your fair tresses in token of fealty, and we 
will carry you many miles to a place of safety where you may 
bid defiance to Zohauk and his ministers. 

The maidens accept the offer and become the brides of 
the spirits of evil. 

The devil in Scott's Wandering Willie's Tale,^ also 
speaks a good word for himself. When the gudesire 
meets in the woods the stranger who sympathizes with 
his obvious distress, the unknown offers to help him, 
saying, "If you will tell me your grief, I am one that, 
though I have been sair miscaa'd in the world, am the 
only hand for helping my freends." The gudesire tells his 
woes and says that he would go to the gates of hell, and 
farther, to get the receipt due him, upon which the hos- 

' In Red Gauntlet. 



136 The Devil and His Allies 

pitable stranger conducts him to the place mentioned. The 
canny Scot obtains the document, outwits the devil, and 
wins his way back to earth unscathed. 

One marked aspect of recent devil-fiction is the tendency 
to gloze over his sins and to humanize him. This is 
shown to a marked degree in Marie Corelli's sentimental 
novel, The Sorrows of Satan, where she expends much 
anxious sympathy over the fiend. To iMiss CoreUi's 
agitated mind Satan is a much maligned martyr who 
regretfully tempts mortals and is grieved when they yield 
to his beguilements. Her perfer^^d rhetoric pictures him 
as a charming prince, handsome, wealthy, yet very lone- 
some, who warns persons in advance that he is not w^hat 
he seems and that they would do well to avoid him. But 
the fools rush in crowds to be damned. xVccording to her 
theory, the devil is attempting to work out his own salva- 
tion and could do so save for the weakness of man. He is 
able to get a notch nearer heaven for every soul that resists 
his wiles, though in London circles his progress is back- 
ward rather than forward. How is Lucifer fallen ! To be 
made a hero of by Marie Corelli must seem to Mephisto 
life's final indignity! Her characterization of the fiend 
shows some reminiscence of a hasty reading of Milton, 
Goethe, and the Byronic Cain. 

The devil has a human as well as daemonic spirit in 
Israel Zangr^'ill's They that Walk in Darkness, where he 
appears as Satan Maketrig, a red-haired hunchback, with 
''gigantic marble brow, cold, keen, steely eyes, and hand- 
some, clean-shaven lips." He seems a normal human 
being in this realistic Ghetto setting, though he bears a 
nameless sense of evil about with him. In his presence, 
or as he passes bv, all the latent evil in men's souls comes 
to the surface. He lures the rabbi away from his wife, 
from God, and from all virtue, yet to see him at the end 
turn away again in spirit to the good, spuming the tempter 



The Devil and His Allies 137 

whom he recognizes at last as daemonic. There is a human 
anguish in the eyes of Satan Maketrig, that shows him to 
be not altogether diabolic, and he seems mournful and 
appealing in his wild loneliness. His nature is in contrast 
to that of the fiend in Stanley J. Weyman's The Man m 
Black. Here his cold, sardonic jesting that causes him to 
play with life and death, so lightly, his diabolic cunning, 
his knowledge of the human heart and how to torture it, 
remind us of lago. The dark shade extends to the skin as 
well as to the heart in the man in black in Stevenson's 
Thrawn Janet, for he exercises a weird power over his 
vassal, the old servant, and terrifies even the minister. 
And War Letters from a Living Dead Man, written by 
Elsa Parker but said to be dictated by a correspondent 
presumably from somewhere in hell, shows us His Satanic 
Majesty with grim realism up to date. 

The devil appears with mournful, human dignity, yet 
with superhuman gigantism in Algernon Blackwood's 
Secret Worship, where the lost souls enter into a riot of 
devil-worship, into which they seek to draw living victims, 
to damn them body and soul. One victim sees the devil 
thus: 

At the end of the room where the windows seemed to have 
disappeared so that he covild see the stars, there rose up into 
view, far against the sky, grand and terrible, the outline of a 
man. A kind of gray glory enveloped him so that it re- 
sembled a steel-cased statue, immense, imposing, horrific 
in its distant splendor. The gray radiance from its mightily 
broken visage, august and mournful, beat down upon his soul, 
pulsing like some dark star with the powers of spiritual evil. 

Here, as in many instances elsewhere, the sadness of 
the diabolic character is emphasized, a definite human 
element. The Miltonic influence seems evident in such 
cases. 



138 The Devil and His Allies 

Kipling has a curious daemonic study in Bubble Well Road, 
a story of a patch of ground filled with devils and ghosts 
controlled by an evil-minded native priest, while in 
Haunted Subalterns the imps terrorize young army officers 
by their malicious mischief. 

The allegorical and symbolic studies of diabolism are 
among the more impressive creations in later fiction, as in 
Tolstoi's Ivan, the Fool, where the demons are responsible 
for the marshaling of armies, the tyranny of money, and 
the inverted ideas of the value of service. The appearance 
of the devil in later stories is more terrible and effective 
in its variance of type and its secret symbolism than 
the crude enginery of diabolism in Gothic fiction, as the 
muscular fiend ' that athletically hurls the man and woman 
from the mountain top, or the invisible physical strength 
manifested in Melmoth, the Wanderer. The crude violence 
of these novels is in keeping with the fiction of the time, 
yet modem stories show a distinct advance, as such 
instances as J. H. Shorthouse's Countess Eve, where the 
devil appears differently to each tempted sotd, embodying 
with hideous wisdom the form of the sin that that particu- 
lar soul is most liable to commit. He bears the shape of 
committed sin, suggesting that evil is so powerful as to 
have an independent existence of its own, apart from the 
mind that gave it birth, as the devil appears as evil thought 
materialized in Fernac Molnar's drama. The Devil. Fiona 
McLeod's strange Gaelic tale. The Sm-Eater introduces 
demons symboHcally. The sin-eater is a person that 
by an ancient formula can remove the sins from an 
unburied corpse and let them in turn be swept away from 
him by the action of the pure air. But if the sin-eater 
hates the dead man, he has the power to fling the trans- 
gressions into the sea, to turn them into demons that 
pursue and torment the flying soul till Judgment Day. 

' In The Monk]oT Zofioya. 



The Devil and His Allies 139 

One aspect of the recent stories of diabolism is the 
subtleness by which the evil is suggested. The reader 
feels a miasmatic atmosphere of evil, a smear on the soul, 
and knows that certain incidents in the action can be 
accounted for on no other basis than that of daemonic 
presence, as in Barry Pain's Moon Madness, where the 
princess is moved by a strange irresistible lure to dance 
alone night after night in the heart of the secret labyrinth 
to mystic music that the white moon makes. But one 
night, after she is dizzy and exhausted but impelled to keep 
on, she feels a hot hand grasp hers; someone whirls her 
madly round and she knows that she is not dancing alone! 
She is seen no more of men, and searchers find only the 
prints of her little dancing slippers in the sand, with the 
mark of a cloven hoof beside them. The most revolting 
instances of suggestive diabolism are found in Arthur 
Machen's stories, where supernatural science opens the 
way for the devil to enter the human soul, since the 
biologist by a cunning operation on the brain removes 
the moral sense, takes away the soul, and leaves a being 
absolutely diabolized. Worse still is the hideousness of 
Seeing the Great God Pan, where the daemonic character is 
a composite of the loathsome aspects of Pan and the devil, 
from which horrible paternity is born a child that embodies 
all the unspeakable evil in the world. 

In pleasant contrast to dreadful stories are the tales of 
the amusing devils that we find frequently. The comic 
devil is much older than the comic ghost, as authors 
showed a levity toward demons long before they treated 
the specter with disrespect, — one rather wonders why. 
Clownish devils that appeared in the miracle plays 
prepared the way for the humorous and satiric treatment 
of the Elizabethan drama and late fiction. The liturgical 
imps were usually funny whether their authors intended 
them as such or not, but the devils in fiction are quite 



140 The Devil and His Allies 

conscious of their own wit, in fact, are rather conceited 
about it. Poe shows us several amusing demons who 
display his curious satiric humor, — for instance, the old 
gentleman in Never Bet the Devil your Head. When 
Toby Dammit makes his rash assertion, he beholds 

the figure of a little lame old gentleman of venerable aspect. 
Nothing could be more reverend than his whole appearance; 
for he not only had on a full suit of black, but his shirt was 
perfectly clean and the collar turned down very neatly over a 
white cravat, while his hair was parted in front like a girl's. 
His hands were clasped pensively over his stomach, and his 
two eyes were carefully rolled up into the top of his head. 

This clerical personage who reminds us of the devil in 
Peer Gyjit, who also appears as a parson, claims the better's 
head and neatly carries it off. This is a modern version of 
an incident similar to Chaucer's Friar's Tale, where the 
devil claimed whatever was offered him in sincerity. 
The combination of humor and mystery in Washington 
Irving 's The Devil and Tom Walker shows the black 
woodsman in an amusing though terrifying aspect, as he 
claims the keeping of the contracts made with him by 
Tom and his miserly wife. When Tom goes to search for 
his spouse in the woods, he fails to find her. 

She had probably attempted to deal with the black man as 
she had been accustomed to deal with her husband; but 
though the female scold is generally considered a match for 
the devil, yet in this instance she appears to have had the 
worst of it. She must have died game, however, for it is said 
Tom noticed many prints of cloven feet deeply stamped 
about the tree, and found handsful of hair that looked as if 
they had been plucked from the coarse shock of the black 
woodsman. Tom knew his wife's prowess by experience. He 
shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the fierce signs of 



The Devil and His Allies 141 

clapper-clawing. "Egad!" he said to himself, "Old Scratch 
must have had a tough time of it !" 

The devil amuses himself in various ways, as is seen by 
the antics of the mysterious stranger in Poe's The Deiil in 
the Belfry, who comes curvetting into the old Dutch 
village with his audacious and sinister face and curious 
costume, to upset the sacred time of the place. The 
visitant in Bon Bon is likewise queer as to dress and habits. 
He wears garments in the style of a century before, having 
a queue but no shirt, a cravat with an ecclesiastic sugges- 
tion, also a stylus and black book. His facial expression 
is such as would have struck Uriah Heap dumb with 
envy, and the hint of hoofs and a forked tail is cleverly 
given though not obtruded. The most remarkable 
feature of his appearance, however, is that he has no eyes, 
simply a dead level of flesh. He declares that he eats 
souls and prefers to buy them alive to insure freshness. He 
has a taste for philosophers, when they are not too tough. 

The satiric devil, like the satiric ghost, is seen in modern 
fiction. Eugene Field has a story of a demon who seems 
sympathetic, weeping large, gummy tears at hearing a 
mortal's woes, and signing the conventional contract on a 
piece of asbestos paper. He agrees to do everything the 
man wishes, for a certain term of years, in return for which 
he is to get the soul. If the devil forfeits the contract, he 
loses not only that victim but the souls of two thousand 
already in his clutches. The man shrewdly demands 
trying things of him, but the demon is game, building and 
endowing churches, carrying on philanthropic and reform 
work without complaint, but balking when the man asks 
him to close the saloons on Sunday. Rather than do 
that, he releases the two thousand and one souls and flies 
away twitching his tail in wrath. ' 

^ Daniel and the Devil. 



142 The Devil and His Allies 

The most recent, as perhaps the most striking, instance 
of the satiric devil is in Mark Twain's posthumous novel. 
The Mysterious Stranger. A youth, charming, courtly, 
and handsome appears in a medieval village, confessing 
to two boys that he is Satan, though not the original of 
that name, but his nephew and namesake. He insists 
that he is an unf alien angel, since his uncle is the only 
member of his family that has sinned. Satan reads the 
thoughts of mortals, kindles fire in his pipe by breathing 
on it, supplies money and other desirable things by mere 
suggestion, is invisible when he wills it so, and is generally 
a gifted being. This perennial boy — only sixteen thousand 
years old — makes a charming companion. He says to 
Marget that his papa is in shattered health and has no 
property to speak of, — in fact, none of any earthly value, — 
but he has an uncle in business down in the tropics, who 
is very well off, and has a monopoly, and it is from this 
uncle that he drew his support. Marget expresses the 
hope that her uncle and his would meet some day, and 
Satan says he hoped so, too. ''May be they will," says 
Marget. " Does your uncle travel much? " 

"Oh, yes, he goes all about, — he has business every- 
where." 

The book is full of this oblique humor, satirizing earth, 
heaven, and hell. The stranger by his comments on 
theological creeds satirizes religion, and Satan is an in- 
tended parody of God. He sneers at man's "mongrel 
moral sense," which tells him the distinction between good 
and evil, insisting that he should have no choice, that the 
right to choose makes him inevitably choose the wrong. 
He makes little figures out of clay and gives them life, 
only to destroy them with casual ruthlessness a little 
later and send them to hell. In answer to the old servant's 
faith in God, when she says that He will care for her and 
her mistress, since "not a sparrow falleth to the ground 



The Devil and His Allies 143 

without His Knowledge," he sneers, "But it falls, just 
the same! What's the good of seeing it fall?" He is a 
new diabolic figure, yet showing the composite traits of the 
old, the daemonic wisdom and sarcasm, the superhuman 
magnetism to draw men to him, and the human quahties 
of geniality, sympathy, and boyish charm. 

One of the most significant and frequent motifs of the 

diabolic in literature is that of the barter of the human 

soul for the devil's gift of some earthly boon, long life or 

wealth or power, or wisdom, or gratification of the senses. 

It is a theme of unusual power, — what could be greater 

than the struggle over one's own immortal soul? — and well 

might the great minds of the world engage themselves 

with it. Yet that theme is but little apparent in later 

stories. We have no such character in recent hterature 

that can compare with Marlowe's Dr. Faustus or Goethe's 

Mephistopheles or Calderon's wonder-working magician. 

Hawthorne's Septimius Felton makes a bargain with 

the devil to secure the elixir of life, there is a legend in 

Hardy's Tess of the D' Urhervilles of a man that sold himself 

to the minister of evil, and the incident occurs in various 

stories of witchcraft, yet with waning power and less 

frequence. The most significant recent use of it is in 

W. B. Yeats' s drama. ' This is a drama of Ireland, where 

the peasants have been driven by famine to barter their 

souls to the devil to buy their children food, but their 

Countess sells her own soul to the demon that they may 

save theirs. This vicarious sacrifice adds a new poignancy 

to the situation and Yeats has treated it with power. 

This is the only recent appearance of the devil on the stage 

for he has practically disappeared from English drama, 

where he was once so prominent. The demon was a 

familiar and leading figure on the miracle and Elizabethan 

stage, but, like the ghost, he shows more vitality now 

* Countess Cathleen. 



144 The Devil and His Allies 

in fiction. The devil is an older figure in English 
drama than is the ghost, but he seems to have played 
out. 

The analysis and representation of the devil as a char- 
acter in literature have covered a great range, from the 
bestiality of Dante's Demon in the Inferno to Milton's 
mighty angel in ruins, with all sorts of variations between, 
from the sneering cynicism of Goethe's Mephisto to the 
pinchbeck diabolism of Marie Corelli's sorrowful Satan, 
and the merry humor and blasphemous satire of Mark 
Twain's mysterious stranger. We note an especial in- 
fluence of Goethe's Mephistopheles in the satiric studies 
of the demon, an echo of his diabolic climax when in 
answer to Faust's outcry over Margaret's downfall and 
death, he says, ^' She is not the first ! " One hears echoing 
through all literature Man Friday's unanswerable ques- 
tion, "Why not God kill debbil? " The uses of evil in 
God's eternal scheme, the soul's free choice yet pitiful 
weakness, are sounded again and again. The great 
diabolic figures, in their essential humanity, their intellec- 
tual dignity, their sad introspection, their pitiless testing 
of the human soul to its predestined fall, are terrible 
allegorical images of the evil in man himself, or concepts 
of social sins, as in Ivan, the Fool. The devils of the great 
writers, reflecting the time, the racial characteristics, the 
personal natures of their creators, are deeply symbolic. 
Each man creates the devil that he can understand, that 
represents him, for, as Amiel says, we can comprehend 
nothing of which we have not the beginnings in ourselves. 
As each man sees a different Hamlet, so each one has his 
own devil, or is his own devil. This is illustrated by the 
figure in Julian Hawthorne's Lovers in Heaven, where the 
dead man's spirit meets the devil in the after life, — who is 
his own image, his daemonic double. Some have one great 
fiend, while others keep packs of little, snarling imps of 



The Devil and His Allies 145 

darkness. A study of comparative diabolics is illuminating 
and might be useful to us all. 

The Wizard and the Witch. The demon has his earthly- 
partners in evil members of the firm of Devil and Com- 
pany. Certain persons that have made a pact with him 
are given a share in his power, and a portion of his dark 
mantle falls upon them. The sorcerer and the witch 
are ancient figures in literature, and like others of the 
supernatural kingdom, notably the devil, they have their 
origin in the East, the cuneiform writings of the Chaldeans 
showing belief in witchcraft. And the Witch of Endor, 
summoning the spirit of Samuel to confront Saul, is a very 
real figure in the Old Testament. The Greeks believed 
in witches, as did the Romans. Meroe, a witch, is 
described in the Metamorphoses of Lucius Appuleius, from 
whom perhaps the witch Meroe in Peele's Old Wives' Tale 
gets her name and character. In classical times witches 
were thought to have power to turn men into beasts, 
tigers, monkeys, or asses — some persons still believe that 
women have that power and might give authenticated 
instances. 

The sorcerer, or wizard, or warlock, or magician, as he 
is variously called, was a more common figure in early 
literature than in later, perhaps because, as in so many 
other cases, his profession has suffered a feminine invasion. 
The Anglo-Saxon word wicca, meaning "witch," is mas- 
culine, which may or may not mean that witchcraft was 
a manly art in those days, and the most famous medieval 
enchanter. Merlin, was a man, it should be noted. The 
sorcerer of primitive times has been gradually reduced in 
power, changing through the astrologer and alchemist of 
medieval and Gothic romance into the bacteriologist and 
biologist of recent fiction, where he works other wonders. 
In general, warlocks and wizards, while frequent enough 
in early literature and in modern folk- tales, have become 



146 The Devil and His Allies 

less numerous in later fiction. Scott ^ has a medical 
magician with supernatural power of healing by means 
of an amulet, which, put to the nostrils of a person practi- 
cally dead, revives him at once, but which loses its efficacy 
if given in exchange for money. Hawthorne has an old 
Indian sachem with wizard power, ^ who has concocted 
the elixir of life. We see the passing of the ancient sor- 
cerer into the scientific wonder-worker in such fiction as 
Sax Rohmer's Fu-Manchu stories that depict a Chinese 
terror, or in H. G. Wells's supernatural investigators in 
his various stories of science. The magician is not really 
dead in fiction but has passed over into another form, for 
the most part. 

We still have the hoodoo man of colored persuasion, 
and the redskin medicine-man, together with Oriental 
sorcerers from Kipling and others. Examples are : In the 
House of Suddoo, by Kipling, where the wonder-worker 
unites a canny knowledge of the telephone and tele- 
graph along with his unholy art; Red Debts, by Lumley 
Deakin, where the Indian magician exacts a terrible 
penalty for the wrong done him, and where his dia- 
bohc appearance to claim his victim leaves one in doubt 
as to whether he has not sent his chief in his place; 
The Monkey's Paw, by W. W. Jacobs, a curdling story of 
a magic curse given by an Oriental sorcerer, by which 
the paw of a dead monkey grants three wishes that have 
a dreadful boomerang power; Black Magic, by Jessie 
Adelaide Weston, — who claims that all her supernatural 
stories are strictly true — the narrative of an old Indian 
sorcerer that changes himself into a hair mat and is shot 
for his pains. He has obtained power over the house by 
being given a hair from the mat by the uninitiated mis- 
tress. Hair, you must know, has great power of evil 
in the hands of witches and sorcerers, as in the case of the 

' In The Talisman. ' In his Septimius Felton. 



The Devil and His Allies 147 

evil ones in The Talisman, who received their thrall over 
the maidens by one hair from each head. F. Marion 
Cra\\iord's Khaled is a ston' of magic art. Khaled is 
one of the genii converted by reading the Koran, who 
wishes to be a mortal man with a soul. He is given 
the right to do so if he can win the love of a certain 
woman. Hence he is bom into the world, like Adam, a 
full-grown man, to be magically clothed and equipped, 
by the transformation of leaves and twigs into garments 
and armor, and the changing of a locust into an Arabian 
steed. After many supernatural adventures, he receives 
his soul from an angel. The soul, at first a crescent 
flame, 

immediately took shape and became the brighter image of 
Khaled himself. And when he had looked at it fixedly for a 
few minutes — the vision of himself had disappeared and before 
he was aware it had entered his own body and taken up its 
life with him. 

This is a parallel to the cases of ghostly doubles dis- 
cussed in the previous chapter. 

The magician shows a disposition to adapt himself to con- 
temporary^ conditions and to change his personality with the 
times. Not so the witch. She is a permanent figure. She 
has appeared in the various forms of literature, in Eliza- 
bethan drama, in Gothic romance, in modem poetr}% the 
novel and the short story, and is very much alive to-day. 
We have witches young and old. We have the fake witch, 
like the hoax ghost; the imputed witch and the genuine 
article. We have witch stories melodramatic, romantic, 
tragic, comic, and satiric, showing the influence of the 
great creations of past literature with modem adaptations 
and additions. English poetry is full of witchery, per- 
haps largely the result of the Celtic influence on our 
literature. The poetic type of ^4tchcraft is brought out 



148 The Devil and His Allies 

in such poems as Coleridge's Christabel, where the beauty 
and suggestiveness veil the sense of unearthly evil; or in 
Shelley's Witch of Atlas, where the woman appears as 
a symbol of alluring loveliness possessing none of the 
hideous aspects seen in other weird women. The water 
enchantress in Shelley's fragment of an unfinished drama 
might be mentioned as another example while Keats 's La 
Belle Dame sans Merci has a magical charm all her own. 
Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market shows a peculiar aspect 
of magic, as also Mrs. Browning's The Lay oj the Brown 
Rosary. On the contrary, Milton's Comus, Robert Herrick's 
The Hag, and James Hogg's The Witch of Fife illustrate 
the uglier aspects of enchantment. 

There are two definite types of witches seen in English 
fiction, the first being merely the reputed witch, the woman 
who is falsely accused or suspected of black arts, and who 
either is persecuted, or else gains what she wishes by hints 
of her traffic in evil, like the Old Granny Young in Mine 
Host and the Witch, by James Blythe, who chants as a 
charm-rune, 

" A curse shall lay on water and land 
For the thing denied the witch's hand," 

so that everybody is afraid to refuse her whatever she 
demands. This is a highly conventionalized type of the 
motif and, though it is found in great numbers in modern 
fiction, is not particularly important. The principal com- 
plications of the plot are usually the same, the character 
known as the witch being either an appealing figure win- 
ning sympathy because of her beauty and youth, or else 
touching to pity because of her age and infirmities. No 
person of average age or pulchritude is ever accused of 
witchcraft in English fiction. She is always very old and 
poor or young and lovely. Item also, she invariably has 



The Devil and His Allies 149 

two lovers, in the latter case. She is merely a romantic peg 
on which to hang a story, not always real as a human being 
and not a real witch. In these stories the only magic used 
is love, the fair maid having unintentionally charmed the 
heart of a villain, who, failing to win her, accuses her of 
witchcraft in order to frighten her into love. In some of 
the novels and stories the victim is actually executed, 
while in others she is rescued by her noble lover at the 
fifty-ninth second. We have the pursuing villain, the 
distressed innocence, the chivalric lover disporting them- 
selves in late Gothic fashion over many romances. Even 
Mary Johnston with her knowledge of Colonial times 
and her power to give atmosphere to the past does not 
succeed in imparting the breath of life to her late novel 
of witchcraft. The Witch. These pink- and- white beauties 
who speak in Euphuistic sentences, who show a lamblike 
defiance toward the dark tempters, who breathe prayers 
to heaven for protection and forgiveness to their enemies 
in one breath, who die or are rescued with equal grace 
and propriety, — one is carried away from the scaffold 
by Kidd, the pirate, thus delaying for several chapters 
her rescue by her faithful lover— do not really touch the 
heart any more than they interest the intellect. Yet there 
are occasional instances of the imputed witch who seems 
real despite her handicap of beauty and youth, as Iseult 
le Desireuse, in Maurice Hewlett's Forest Lovers, whom 
Prosper le Gai weds to save from the hangman. The 
young woman in F. Marion Crawford's Witch of Prague 
might be called a problematic witch, for while she does 
undoubtedly work magic, it is for the most part attributed 
to her powers of hypnotism rather than to the black art 
itself. We find an excellent example of the reputed 
witch who is a woman of real charm and individuality, 
in D'Annunzio's The Daughter of Jorio, where the young 
girl is beset by cruel dangers because of her charm and her 



150 The Devil and His Allies 

lonely condition, and who rises to tragic heights of sacri- 
fice to save her lover from death, choosing to be burned 
to death as a witch to save him from paying the penalty 
of murder. vShe actually convmces him, as well as the 
others, that she has bewitched him by unholy powers, 
that she has slain his father and made him believe that he 
himself did it to save her honor, and she goes to her death 
with a white fervor of courage, with no word of complaint, 
save one gentle rebuke to him that he should not revile 
her. 

The aged pseudo-witch is in the main more appealing 
than the young one, because more realistic. Yet there is 
no modern instance that is so touching as the poor old 
crone in The Witch of Edmonton, who is persecuted for 
being a witch and who turns upon her tormentors with 
a speech that reminds us of Shylock's famous outcry, 
showing clearly how their suspicion and accusation have 
made her what she is. We see here a witch in the 
making, an innocent old woman who is harried by 
human beings till she makes a compact with the devil. 
Meg Merrilies^ is a problematic witch, a majestic, 
sibylline figure, very individual and human, yet with 
more than a suggestion of superhuman wisdom and 
power. Scott limned her with a loving hand, and Keats 
was so impressed with her personality that he wrote 
a poem concerning her. Elizabeth Enderfield, in Hardy's 
Under the Greenwood Tree, is a reputed witch and witch- 
pricking is also tried in his Return of the Native. Various 
experiments with magic are used in Hardy's work, as 
the instance of the woman's touching her withered arm 
to the neck of a man that had been hanged, consulting 
the conjurer concerning butter that won't come, and so 
forth. Old Aunt Keziah in Hawthorne's Septimius Felton 
might be called a problematic witch, as the woman in The 

* Of Scott's Guy Mannering. 



The Devil and His Allies 151 

Witch by Eden Phillpotts. She has a great number of 
cats, and something dreadful happens to anyone who 
injures one of them; she calls the three black toads her 
servants and goes through incantations over a snake 
skeleton, the carcass of a toad, and the mummy of a cat. 
Mother Tab may or may not be a bona fide witch, but 
she causes much trouble to those associated with her. 

The unquestioned witch, possessing indubitable powers 
of enchantment, occurs frequently and conveys a genuine 
thrill. Her attributes have been less conventionalized 
than those of her youthful companions who are merely 
under the imputation of black art, and she possesses a 
diabolic individuality. Though she may not remain 
long in view, she is an impressive figure not soon for- 
gotten. The old crone in Scott's The Two Drovers gives 
warning to Robin Oig, "walking the deasil, " as it is 
called, around him, tracing the propitiation which some 
think a reminiscence of Druidical mythology, — which is 
performed by walking three times round the one in 
danger, moving according to the course of the sun. In the 
midst of her incantation the hag exclaims, " Blood on your 
hand, and it is English blood!" True enough, before his 
journey's end young Robin does murder his English com- 
panion. In the same story other evidences of witch- 
craft are shown, as the directions for keeping away the evil 
influence from cattle by tying St. Mungo's knot on their 
tails. 

The subject of witchcraft greatly interested Hawthorne, 
for he introduces it in a number of instances. Young 
Goodman Brown shows the aspects of the diabolic union 
between the devil and his earthly companions, their unholy 
congregations in the forest, reports their sardonic conver- 
sations and suggestions of evil in others, and pictures the 
witches riding on broomsticks high in the heavens and 
working their magic spells. The young husband sees in 



152 The Devil and His Allies 

that convocation all the persons whom he has most 
revered — his minister, his Sabbath-school teacher, and 
even his young wife, so that all his after-life is saddened 
by the thought of it. Witchcraft enters into The Scarlet 
Letter, Main Street, and Feather top, and is mentioned 
in other stories. 

Old Mother Sheehy in KipHng's The Courting of Dinah 
Shadd pronounces a malediction against Private Mulvany 
and the girl he loves, prophesying that he will be reduced 
in rank instead of being promoted, will be a slave to 
drink so that his young wife will take in washing for 
officers' wives instead of herself being the wife of an 
officer, and that their only child will die, — every bitter 
word of which comes true in after years. The old witch 
mother in Howard Pyle's The Evil Eye inspires her 
daughter to cast a spell over the man she loves but who 
does not think of her, causing him to leave his betrothed 
and wed the witch daughter. When understanding comes 
to him, and with it loathing, the girl seeks to regain his 
love by following the counsel of an old magician, who 
gives her an image to be burnt. But that burning of the 
image kills her and looses the man from her spell. That 
incident is similar to that in D'Annimzio's Sogno d'un 
Tramonto d'Autunno where the Dogaressa seeks to slay 
her rival, both probably being based on the unforgettable 
employment of the theme in Rossetti's Sister Helen, 
where the young girl causes the death of her betrayer 
by melting the image. 

In Gordon Bottomley's play. Riding to Lithend, three 
old women enter, who seem to partake of the nature of 
the Parcae as well as of Shakespeare's Weird Sisters. They 
have bat-webbed fingers, the hound bays uncannily at their 
approach, they show supernatural knowledge of events, 
and they chant a wild prophecy of doom, then mysteriously 
disappear. Fate marches swiftly on as they foretell. 



The Devil and His Allies 153 

The young and beautiful witch can work as much evil as 
the ancient crone, perhaps more, since her emotions are 
wilder and more unrestrained. She can project a curse 
that reaches its victim across the ocean, when the one 
who sent the curse is rotting in the tomb, as in The Curse 
of the Cashmere Shawl, where a betrayed and deserted 
woman in India sends a rare shawl to her rival, then 
drowns herself. Months after, when the husband, 
forgetful of the source, lays the shawl around his wife's 
shoulders, the dead woman takes her place. After this 
gruesome transfer of personality, the wife, impelled by a 
terrible urge she cannot understand, drowns herself as 
the other has done months before. Oscar Wilde' shows 
a young and lovely witch with a human longing for the 
love of the young man who throws away his soul for love 
of a mermaid. Through life's tragic satire, she is com- 
pelled, in spite of her entreaties, to show him how he 
may damn himself and win the other's affection. The 
jealousy shown here and in other instances is an illustra- 
tion of the human nature of the witch, who, like the devil, 
makes a strong appeal to our sympathy in spile of the 
undoubted iniquity. 

The element of symbolism enters largely into the 
witch-creations, even from the time of Shakespeare's 
Three in Macbeth, who are terrible symbolic figures of the 
evil in man's soul. They appear as the visible embodi- 
ment of Macbeth's thoughts, and by their mysterious 
suggestive utterances tempt him to put his unlawful 
dreams into action. They seem both cause and effect 
here, for though when they first appear to him his hands 
are innocent of blood, his heart is tainted with selfish 
ambition, and their whispers of promise hurry on the 
deed. In Ancient Sorceries, by Algernon Blackwood, 
the village is full of persons who at night by the 
' In The Fisherman and his Soul. 



154 The Devil and His Allies 

power of an ancestral curse, a heritage of subliminal 
memory, become witches, horrible cat-creatures, un- 
human, that dance the blasphemous dance of the Devil's 
Sabbath. The story symbolizes the eternal curse that 
rests upon evil, the undying quality of thought and ac- 
tion that cannot cease when the body of the sinner has 
become dust, but reaches out into endless generations. 

In Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts by A. T. Quiller-Couch, 
we see a witch, a young woman whose soul is under a spell 
from the devil. She gives rich gifts to the church, but her 
offerings turn into toads and vipers, defiling the sanctuary, 
and as she sings her wild songs the bodies of drowned men 
come floating to the surface of the water and join in the 
words of her song. Her beauty is supernatural and 
accursed, yet her soul is innocent of wish to do evil, though 
it leaves her body and goes like a cresseted flame at 
night to follow the devil, while the body is powerless in 
sleep. Finally the devil comes in the form of a Moor, 
possibly a suggestion from Zofloya, and summons her, 
when she dies, with a crucifix clasped over her heart. 

W. B. Yeats has pictured several witches for us, as 
the crone of the gray hawk, in The Wisdom of the King, 
a woman tall with more than mortal height, with 
feathers of the gray hawk growing in her hair, who stoops 
over the royal cradle and whispers a strange thing to the 
child, as a result of which he grows up in a solitude of his 
own mystic thoughts with dreams that are like the march- 
ing and counter-marching of armies. When he realizes 
that the simple joys of life and love are not for him, he 
disappears, some say to make his home with the immortal 
demons, some say with the shadowy goddesses that 
haunt the midnight pools in the forest. In The Curse 
of the Fires and the Shadows, Yeats pictures another 
witch, tall and in a gray gown, who is standing in the 
river and washing, washing the dead body of a man. 



The Devil and His Allies 155 

As the troopers who have murdered the friars and burned 
down the church ride past, each man recognizes in the 
dead face his own face, — just a moment before they 
all plunge over the abyss to death. 

There are witches in most collections of English folk- 
tales, for the simpler people, the more elemental natures, 
have a strong feeling for the twilight of nature and of 
life. The weird woman has power over the forces of 
nature and can evoke the wrath of the elements as 
of unholy powers against her enemies. Stories of witches, 
as of sorcerers, occur in Indian folk-tales, as well as in those 
of the American Indian, differing in details in the tribal 
collections yet showing similar essential ideas. The 
Scotch show special predilection for the witch, since 
with their tense, stem natures, they stand in awe of the 
darker powers and of those that call them forth. They 
relate curious instances of the relations between the 
animal world and witchcraft, as in The Dark Name- 
less One, by Fiona McLeod, the story of a nun that 
falls in love with a seal and is forced to live forever in the 
sea, weaving her spells where the white foam froths, and 
knowing that her soul is lost. This is akin to the theme 
that Matthew Arnold uses,^ though with a different 
treatment, showing similarity to Hans Christian Ander- 
sen's tale of The Little Mermaid. The cailleachuisge, 
or the water-witch, and the maighdeanmhara, the 
mermaid, and the kelpie, the sea-beast, are cursed with 
daemonic spells and live forever in their witchery. When 
mortals forsake the earth and follow them their chil- 
dren are beings that have no souls. The Irish folk- 
tales, on the other hand, while having their quota of 
witches, do not think so much about them or take them 
quite so seriously, inclining more to the faery forms of 
supematuralism suited to their poetic natures. The 

^ In his Forsaken Merman and The Neckan. 



156 The Devil and His Allies 

sense of beauty of the Irish is so vivid and their innate 
poetry so intense that they gUmpse the loveHness of 
magic, and their enchanted beings are of beauty rather 
than of horror. 

We even have the humorous and satiric witch, to 
correspond to similar representations of the ghost and the 
devil in modern fiction. The instance in Burns 's Tam 
O'Shanter needs only to be recalled, with the ludicrous 
description of the wild race at night to escape the dread 
powers. Bones, Sanders, and Another, by Edgar Wallace, 
introduces a witch with comic qualities, a woman whose 
husband has been a magician, and the reputed familiar 
of a devil. She cures people by laying her hands on 
them, once causing a bone that was choking a child to 
fly out with "a cry terrible to hear, such a cry as a leopard 
makes when pursued by ghosts." When this witch with 
a sense of humor is arrested as a trouble-maker by an 
army officer, she ''eradicates" her clothes, causing very 
comic complications. The best example of the satiric 
witch is Hawthorne's Mother Rigby, in Feather top, who 
constructs a man from a broomstick and other materials 
for a scarecrow. In this satiric sermon upon the shams and 
hypocrisies of life, Mother Rigby, with her sardonic humor, 
her cynical comments, parodies society, holds the mirror 
up to human life and shows more than one poor painted 
scarecrow, simulacrum of humanity, masquerading as a 
man. The figure that she creates, with his yearnings and 
his pride, his horror when he realizes his own falsity and 
emptiness, is more human, more a man, than many a 
being we meet in literature or in life. 

Barry Pain has several witch stories that do not fall 
readily into any category, curious stories of scientific 
dream-supernaturalism, in the realm of the unreal. 
Exchange is the account of a supernatural woman, whether 
a witch or one of the Fates, one does not know, who 



The Devil and His Allies 157 

comes, clad in scarlet rags, to show human souls their des- 
tinies. She permits an exchange of fate, if one is willing 
to pay her price, which is in each case terrible enough. 
One young girl gives up her pictured future of life and 
love, and surrenders her mind for the purpose of saving 
her baby brother from his destined fate of suicide in 
manhood. The crone appears to an old man that loves the 
child, who takes upon himself her fate of being turned 
into a bird to be tortured after human death, so that the 
young girl may have his future, to be turned into a white 
lamb that dies after an hour, then be a soul set free. 
The Glass of Supreme Moments is another story of pro- 
phetic witchery, of revealed fate seen in supernatural 
dreams. A young man in his college study sees the 
fireplace turn into a silver stairway down which a lovely 
gray-robed woman comes to him. She shows him a 
mirror, the glass of supreme moments, in which the 
highest instants of each man's life are shown. She says 
of it, "All the ecstasy of the world lies there. The 
supreme moments of each man's life, the scene, the spoken 
words — all lie there. Past and present and future — all 
are there." She shows an emotion meter that measures 
the thrill of joy. After he has seen the climactic instants 
of his friends' lives he asks to see his own, when she tells 
him his are here and now. She tells him that her name is 
Death and that he will die if he kisses her, but he cries 
out, "I will die kissing you!" And presently his mates 
return to find his body fallen dead across his table. 

There is something infinitely appealing about the char- 
acter of the witch. She seems a creature of tragic loneli- 
ness, conscious of her own dark powers, yet conscious 
also of her exile from the good, and knowing that all 
the evil she evokes will somehow come back to her, that 
her curses will come home, as in the case of Witch Hazel, 
where the witch, by making a cake of hair to overcome her 



158 The Devil and His Allies 

rival in love, brings on a tempest that kills her lover and 
drives her mad. Each evil act, each dark imagining 
seems to create a demon and turn him loose to harry 
humanity with unceasing force, as Matthew Maule's 
curse in The House of Seven Gables casts a spiritual shadow 
on the home. Yet the witch is sometimes a minister of 
good, as Mephistopheles says of himself, achieving the good 
where he meant evil ; sometimes typifying the mysterious 
mother nature, as the old Wittikin in Hauptmann's Sunken 
Bell, neither good nor evil, neither altogether human nor 
supernatural. Her strange symbolism is always impressive. 

Daemonic Spirits-^Vampires. Closely related to the 
devil are certain diabolic spirits that are given super- 
natural power by him and acknowledge his suzerainty. 
These include ghouls, vampires, werewolves, and other 
demoniac animals, as well as the human beings that 
through a compact with the fiend share in his dark force. 
Since such creatures possess dramatic possibilities, they 
have given interest to fiction and other literature from 
early times. This idea of an unholy alliance between 
earth and hell, has fascinated the human mind and been 
reflected astonishingly in literature. In studying the 
appearance of these beings in English fiction, we note, as 
in the case of the ghost, the witch, and the devil, a certain 
leveling influence, a tendency to humanize them and 
give them characteristics that appeal to our sympathy. 

The vampire and the ghoul are closely related and by 
some authorities are considered the same, yet there is a 
distinction. The ghoul is a being, to quote Poe, ''neither 
man nor woman, neither brute nor human" that feeds 
upon corpses, stealing out at midnight for loathsome 
banquets in graveyards. He devours the flesh of the 
dead, while the vampire drains the blood of the living. 
The ghoul is an Asiatic creature and has left but slight 
impress upon English literature, while the vampire has 



The Devil and His Allies 159 

been a definite motif. The vampire superstition goes 
back to ancient times, being referred to on Chaldean and 
Assyrian tablets. William of Newbury, of the twelfth 
century in England, relates several stories of them; one 
vampire was burned in Melrose Abbey, and tourists in 
Ireland are still shown the grave of a vampire. Perhaps 
the vampire superstition goes back to the savagery of 
remote times, and is an animistic survival of human 
sacrifices, of cannibalism and the like. The vampire 
is thought of as an evil spirit issuing forth at night to 
attack the living in their sleep and drain the blood which 
is necessary to prolong its own revolting existence. Cer- 
tain persons were thought to be especially liable to become 
vampires at death, such as suicides, witches, wizards, 
persons who in life had been attacked by vampires, out- 
casts of various kinds, as well as certain animals, were- 
wolves, dead lizards, and others. 

The vampire superstition was general in the East and 
extended to Europe, it is thought, by way of Greece. 
The Greeks thought of the vampire as a beautiful young 
woman, a lamia, who lured young men to their death. 
The belief was particularly strong in central Europe, 
but never seemed to gain the same foothold in England 
that it did on the continent, though it is evident here 
and has influenced literature. The vampire has been the 
inspiration for several operas, and has figured in the 
drama, in poetry, in the novel and short story, as well as 
in folk-tales and medieval legends. The stories show 
the various aspects of the belief and its ancient hold on the 
popular mind. The vampire, as well as the ghost, the 
devil, and the witch, has appeared on the English stage. 
The Vampire, an anonymous melodrama in two acts, 
The Vampire, a tragedy by St. John Dorset (1821), The 
Vampire Bride, a play, Le Vampire, by Alexander Dumas 
perey and The Vampire, or the Bride of the Isles, by J. R. 



i6o The Devil and His Allies 

Planche, were presented in the London theater. The 
latter which was pubHshed in 1820 is remarkably similar 
to The Vampyre, a novelette by Polidori, published in 
1 8 19, — the story written after the famous ghost session 
where Byron, the Shelley s, and Polidori agreed each to 
write a ghostly story, Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein. 

Polidori's story, like the play referred to, has for its 
principal character an Englishman, Lord Ruthven, the 
Earl of Marsden, who is the vampire. In each case 
there is a supposed death, where the dying man asks 
that his body be placed where the last rays of the moon 
can fall upon it. The corpse then mysteriously vanishes. 
In each story there is a complication of a rash pledge of 
silence made by a man that discovers the diabolical nature 
of the earl, who, having risen from the dead, is ravaging 
society as a vampire. In each case a peculiar turn of 
the story is that the masculine vampire requires for his 
subsistence the blood of young women, to whom he 
must be married. He demands a new victim, hence a 
hurried wedding is planned. In the play the ceremony 
is interrupted by the bride's father, but in the novelette 
the plot is finished and the girl becomes the victim of the 
destroyer. It is a question which of these productions 
was written first, and which imitated the other, or if 
they had a common source. The author of the drama 
admits getting his material from a French play, but 
where did Polidori get his? 

Byron seems to have been fascinated with the vampire 
theme, for in addition to his unsuccessful short story, 
he has used the theme in his poem. The Giaour. Here 
he brings in the idea that the vampire curse is a judg- 
ment from God for sin, and that the most terrible part 
of the punishment is the being forced to prey upon those 
who in life were dearest to him, which idea occurs in 
various stories. 



The Devil and His Allies i6i 

"But first on earth as Vampyre sent 
Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent ; 
Then ghastly haunt thy native place 
And suck the blood of all thy race ; 
There from thy daughter, sister, wife. 
At midnight drain the stream of life ; 
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce 
Must feed thy livid, living corse. 
Thy victims, ere they yet expire 
Shall know the demon for their sire ; 
As, cursing thee, thou cursing them, 
Thy flowers are withered on the stem. 
But one, that for thy crime must fall, 
The youngest, best-beloved of all. 
Shall bless thee with a father's name — 
That word shall wrap thy heart in flame ! 
Yet must thou end the task and mark 
Her cheek's last tinge, her eye's last spark, 
And the last glassy glance must view 
Which freezes o'er its lifeless blue; 
Then with unhallowed hand shall tear 
The tresses of her yellow hair. 
Of which, in life, a lock when shorn 
Affection's fondest pledge was worn, — 
But now is borne away by thee 
Memorial of thine agony! 
Yet with thine own best blood shall drip 
Thy gnashing teeth and haggard lip ; 
Then stalking to thy sullen grave 
Go — and with ghouls and Afrits rave, 
Till these in horror shrink away 
From specter more accursed than they!" 

Southey in his Thalaba shows us a vampire, a young 
girl in this case, who has been torn away from her husband 
on their wedding day. The curse impels her to attack 
him, to seek to drain his lifeblood. He becomes 



i62 The Devil and His Allies 

aware of the truth and takes her father with him to the 
tomb, to await her coming forth at midnight, which is 
the striking hour for vampires. When she appears, 
"in her eyes a brightness more terrible than all the 
loathsomeness of death," her father has the courage to 
strike a lance through her heart to dispel the demon and 
let her soul be at peace. 

"Then howling with the wound 
The fiendish tenant fled. ... 
And garmented with glory in their sight 
Oneiza's spirit stood." 

Keats uses the Greek idea of the vampire as a lamia or 
beautiful young woman luring young men to death,— 
the same theme employed by Goethe in his Die Braut 
von Corinth. In Lamia, when the evil spirit in the form 
of a lovely, alluring woman, is accused by the old philo- 
sopher, she gives a terrible scream and vanishes. This 
vanishing business is a favorite trick with vampires — 
they leave suddenly when circumstances crowd them. 

F. Marion Crawford, in For the Blood Is the Life, has 
given us a terrible vampire story, in which the dream 
element is present to a marked degree. The young man, 
who has been vainly loved by a young girl, is after her 
death vampirized by her, something after the fashion 
of Turgeniev's Clara Militch, and when his friends get 
an inkling of the truth, and go to rescue him, they find 
him on her grave, a thin red line of blood trickling from 
his throat. 

And the flickering light of the lantern played upon another 
face that looked up from the feast, — upon two deep, dead 
eyes that saw in spite of death — upon parted lips redder than 
life itself — upon gleaming teeth on which gHstened a rosy 
drop. 



The Devil and His Allies 163 

The hawthome stake is driven through her heart and 
the vampire expires after a terrific struggle, uttering dia- 
bolic, human shrieks. There is a certain similarity 
between this and Gautier'sLa Morte Amoreuse, where the 
truth is concealed till the last of the story and only the 
initiated would perhaps know that the reincarnated woman 
was a vampire. It is also a bit like Turgeniev's Phan- 
toms, where a subtle suggestion at the last gives the reader 
the clue to vampirism, though the author really asks 
the question at the close, Was she a vampire? The char- 
acter of the woman is problematic here, as in Gautier's 
story, less pronounced than in Crawford's. 

The idea of occult vampirism used by Turgeniev is 
also employed by Reginald Hodder in his work. The 
Vampire. Here peculiar power is possessed by a woman 
leader of an occult band, who vampirizes by means of a 
talisman. Her ravages are psychic rather than physical. 
Theosophists, according to the Occult Magazine, believe 
in vampires even in the present. According to their 
theory, one who has been very wicked in life is in death 
so inextricably entangled vrith his evil motives and acts 
that he is hopelessly lost and knows it, yet seeks to delay 
for a time his final damnation. He can ward off spiritual 
death so long as he can keep alive by means of blood 
his physical corpse. The Occult Review believes that 
probably only those acquainted with black magic in their 
lifetime can become vampires, — a thought comforting 
to some of us. 

It is in Bram Stoker's Dr acuta that one finds the tensest, 
most dreadful modern story of vampirism. This novel 
seems to omit no detail of terror, for every aspect of vam- 
pire horror is touched upon with brutal and ghastly 
effect. The combination of ghouls, vampires, ghosts, were- 
wolves, and other awful elements is almost unendurable, 
yet the book loses in effect toward the last, for the 



i64 The Devil and His Allies 

mind cannot endure four hundred pages of vampiric 
outrage and respond to fresh impressions of horror. The 
initial vampire here is a Hungarian count, who, after 
terrorizing his own country for years, transports himself 
to England to start his ravages there. Each victim in 
turn becomes a vampire. The combination of modem 
science with medieval superstition to fight the scourge, 
using garlic and sprigs of the wild rose together with 
blood transfusion, is interesting. All the resources of 
modern science are pitted against the infection and the 
complications are dramatically thrilling. The book is 
not advised as suitable reading for one sitting alone at 
night. 

There are other types of vampirism in addition to the 
conventional theme and the occult vampirism. H. G. 
Wells gives his customary twist of novelty to super- 
naturalism by the introduction of a botanical vanjpire 
in his The Flowering of the Strange Orchid. An orchid 
collector is found unaccountably dead in a jungle in the 
Andaman Islands, with a strange bulb lying under him, 
which bulb is brought to England and watched carefully 
by a botanist there till it comes to flower. When at 
last its blossoms burst open, great tentacles reach out to 
grasp the man, sucking his blood and strangling him. The 
tentacles dripping blood have to be torn away and the 
man snatched violently from the plant just in time to 
save his life. 

Algernon Blackwood, who has touched upon every 
terrible aspect of supernaturalism, gives us two types of 
vampires in his story. The Transfer. The one is a psychic 
vampire, stealing the vital power from others, a human 
sponge, absorbing the strength, the ideas, the soul, of 
others. The governess describes him: "I watched his 
hard, bleak face; I noticed how thin he was, and the 
curious, oily brightness of his steady eyes. And ever\^- 



The Devil and His Allies 165 

thing he said or did announced what I may dare to call 
the suction of his presence." This human vampire comes 
in contact with one of another sort, a soil vampire, the 
Forbidden Corner, a bald, sore place in the rose garden, 
like a dangerous bog. The woman and a little child 
know the truth of this spot so barren in the midst of 
luxurious growth, so sinister in its look and implication. 
The child says of it, ''It's bad. It's hungry. It's dying 
because it can't get the food it wants. But I know what 
would make it feel right." The earth vampire stretches 
out silent feelers from its secret strength when the man 
comes near the evil spot; the empty, yawning spot gives 
out audible cries, then laughs hideously as the man falls 
forward into the middle of the patch. ''His eyes, as he 
dropped, faded shockingly, and across the countenance 
was written plainly what I can only call an expression of 
destruction." The man lives on physically, yet without 
vitality, without real life. But it was otherwise with the 
Forbidden Corner, for soon "it lay untouched, full of 
great, luscious, driving weeds and creepers, very strong, 
full-fed and bursting thick with life." 

And so the vampire stories vary in theme and in treat- 
ment. Indian folk-tales appearing in English show that 
the Jigar-Khor, or Liver-eater of India is a cousin to the 
vampire, for he can steal your liver by just looking at 
you. (It has long been known that hearts can be filched 
in this way, but the liver wrinkle is a new one.) There 
are several points to be noted in connection with these 
stories of the Un-dead, the incorruptible corpses, the 
loathsome spirits that haunt the living. Many of the 
stories have a setting in the countries where the vampire 
superstition has been most common, though there are 
English settings as well. Continental countries are richer 
in vampire lore than England, which explains the location 
of the incidents even in many English stories and poems. 



i66 The Devil and His Allies 

Another point to be noted is the agreement of the stories 
in the essential features. While there are numerous 
variants, of course, there is less divergence than in the 
case of ghosts, for instance. The description of the 
daemonic spirit tenanting the body of a dead person, 
driving him by a dreadful urge to attack the living, 
especially those dear to him in life, is much the same. 
The personality of the vampire may vary, in one line 
of stories being a young woman who lures men to 
death, in the other a man who must quench his thirst 
with the blood of brides. These are the usual types, 
though there are other variants. 

The Werewolf and Others. Another daemonic figure 
popular in fiction is the werewolf. The idea is a very old 
one, having been, mentioned by various classical writers, it 
is said, including Pomponius Mela, Herodotus, and Ovid. 
The legend of the werewolf is found in practically all 
European countries, especially those where the wolf is 
common. In France many stories of the loup-garou are 
current. The werewolf is a human being cursed with the 
power or the obligation to be transformed into an animal 
who goes forth to slay and devour. Like a vampire, he 
might become such as a curse from God, or he might 
be an innocent victim, or might suffer from an atavistic 
tendency, a cannibalistic craving for blood. Distinction 
is to be made between the real werewolf and the lycan- 
thrope, — -the latter a human being who, on account of some 
peculiar twist of insanity, fancies himself a wolf and acts 
accordingly. There is such a character in The Duchess 
of Malfi, a maniac who thinks himself a mad wolf, and 
another in The Alhigenses, a creature that crouches in a 
corner of its lair, gnawing at a skull snatched from the 
graveyard, uttering bestial growls. Algernon Blackwood 
has a curdling story of lycanthropy, where the insane 
man will eat nothing but raw meat and devours every- 



The Devil and His Allies 167 

thing living that he can get hold of. He confesses to a 
visitor that he used to bite his old servant, but that he 
gave it up, since the old Jew tasted bitter. The servant 
also is mad, and "hides in a vacuum" when his master 
goes on a rampage. Stories of lycanthropy illustrate an 
interesting aspect of the association between insanity 
and the supernatural in fiction. 

The most revolting story of lycanthropy is in Frank 
Norris's posthumous novel, Vandover and the Brute. This 
is a study in soul degeneration, akin to the moral decay 
that George Eliot has shown in the character of Tito 
Melema, but grosser and utterly lacking in artistic re- 
straint. We see a young man, at first sensitive, delicate, 
and with high ideals, gradually through love of ease and 
self-indulgence, through taking always the line of least 
resistance, becoming a moral outcast. The brute that 
ever strains at the leash in man gains the mastery and the 
artist soul ends in a bestial creature. Dissipation brings 
on madness, called by the doctors "lycanthropy-mathe- 
sis." In his paroxysms of insanity the wretch thinks 
that his body is turned into the beast that his soul sym- 
bolizes, and runs about his room, naked, four-footed, 
growling like a jungle animal and uttering harsh, raucous 
cries of Wolf-wolf I 

Kipling's The Mark of the Beast is midway between a 
lycanthrope and a werewolf story, for while the soul of the 
beast — or whatever passes for the brutish soul — enters 
into the man and drives out his spirit, and while 
many bestial characteristics result, including the re- 
volting odor, the man does not change his human 
form. 

While lycanthropy has never been a frequent theme in 
fiction, the werewolf is a common figure, appearing in 
various forms of literature, from medieval ballads and 
legends to modern short stories. Marie de France, the 



i68 The Devil and His Allies 

Anglo-Norman \\Titer, ^ tells of a werewolf that is by day 
a gallant knight and kindly gentleman, yet goes on 
nocturnal marauding expeditions. When his wife shows 
curiosity concerning his absences and presses him for an 
explanation, he reluctantly tells her that he is a werewolf, 
hiding his clothes in a hollow tree, and that if they were 
removed he would have to remain a wolf. She has her 
lover steal his clothes, then marries the lover. One day 
long afterward the king's attention is called to a wolf that 
runs up to him and acts strangeh'. It is a tame and well- 
mannered beast till the false knight and his wife appear, 
when he tries to tear their throats. Investigation reveals 
the truth, the clothes are fetched, and the curse removed. 
Arthur O'Shaughnessy's modem version of this, as of 
others of Marie's lais, is charming. 

Like the vampire, the werewolf is under a curse that 
impels him to prey upon those dearest to him. Controlled 
by a daemonic spirit, the human being, that in his normal 
personahty is kindly and gentle, becomes a jimgle beast 
with ravening instincts. The motif is obviously tangled 
up with the vampire superstition here, and it would be 
interesting, if possible, to trace out the two to a point of 
combination. This irresistible impulse to slay his dear 
ones introduces a dramatic element into the plot, here as 
in the vampire stories. The wolf is not the only animal 
around whom such plots center, but being most common 
he has given his name to the type. The Albigenses 
tell of a young husband who, as a werewolf, slays his 
bride, then vanishes to be seen no more. 

There are interesting variants of the werewolf story, 
introducing other elements of supematuralism. In A 
Vendetta of the Jimgle,'' we have the idea of successive 
infection of the moral curse, similar to the continuation of 

» In her lay of Bisclaverat. 

' By Arthur Applier and H. Sidney Warwick. 



The Devil and His Allies 169 

vampirism. Mrs. Crump, a lady in India, is eaten by a 
tiger, who has a good digestion for he assimilates not 
only her body but her soul. So that now it is Mrs. 
Crump-Tiger, we might say, that goes about the jungle 
eating persons. In time she devours her successor in 
her husband's affection. The man is aware that it is 
his first wife who has eaten his second, so he starts out to 
kill the animal to clear off the score. But by the time he 
reaches the jungle the beast has had time to digest his 
meal and when the husband levels his gun to fire, the 
eyes that look out at him from the brutish face are his 
beloved's eyes. What could he do? 

Eugene Field gives a new turn to the idea by represent- 
ing the werewolf curse as a definite atavistic throw-back. 
His wolf-man is an innocent marauder, the reincarnation 
of a wicked grandfather, yet a gentle, chivalrous soul very 
different from his grandparent. The old gentleman has 
left him heir to nothing but the curse and a magic spear 
given him by the witch Brunhilde. The werewolf bears 
a charmed life against which no weapon of man can 
avail, and the country is panic-stricken over his ravages. 
The legend is that the beast's fury cannot be stopped till 
some man offers himself as a voluntary sacrifice to the 
wolf. The youth does not know that he is the guilty 
one until his reprehensible grandfather appears to him in 
a vision, demanding his soul. He hears that there is to be 
a meeting in the sacred grove on a certain day and begs 
his beloved to remain away, lest the werewolf come. 
But when she insists that she will go, he gives her his 
magic spear, telling her to strike the wolf through the 
heart if he approaches her. True to his accursed destiny 
the wolf does come to the grove and lunges at the girl. All 
the men flee but one, and his weapons fail, — then the terri- 
fied girl hurls the spear, striking the beast to the heart. But 
when he falls, it is young Harold who is dying, who has 



170 The Devil and His Allies 

given himself a voluntary sacrifice to save others. The 
curse is lifted but he is dead. 

In The Camp of the Dog, by Algernon Blackwood, we 
have another unconscious werewolf, a gentle, modest, 
manly young fellow madly in love with a girl who doesn't 
care for him. In his sleep he goes questing for her. 
While his body lies shrunken on a cot in his tent, his soul 
takes the form of a wolf and goes to the hilltop, uttering 
unearthly howls. By an equally strong psychic disturb- 
ance the girl is impelled to go in a somnambulistic state 
to the hilltop. Each is in waking hours utterly unaware 
of their strange jaunts, till the father shoots the wolf. 
The young man in this case suffers only curious psychic 
wounds, from which he recovers when the girl promises 
to marry him, and the wolf is seen no more. 

The panther plays his part in this were-menagerie. 
Amxbrose Bierce, in The Eyes of the Panther, tells of a 
young girl who, because of a prenatal curse similar to 
that affecting Elsie Venner, is not wholly human. She is 
conscious of her dual nature and tells the man she loves 
that she cannot marry him since she is a panther by night. 
He thinks her mildly insane till one night a settler sees a 
beast's eyes glaring into his window and fires. When they 
follow the blood-tracks, they find the girl dying. This 
is one of the conventions of the werewolf story, the 
wounding of an animal that escapes and the blood-trail 
that leads to a human being wounded just as the beast 
was. 

Elliott O'Donnell, in a volume called Werewolves pub- 
lished in London in 191 2, gives serious credence to the 
existence of werewolves not only in the past but also 
in the present. He tells a number of stories of what he 
claims are authenticated instances of such beings in actual 
life. He relates the experience of a man who told him 
that he had himself seen a youth turn himself into a 



The Devil and His Allies 171 

tiger after preparatory passes of enchantment. The 
watcher made haste to climb a sacred Vishnu tree when the 
transformation was complete. O'Donnell tells a tale of a 
widow with three children that married a Russian noble- 
man. She saw him and his servant change into were- 
wolves, at least partially, remaining in a half state, 
devouring her children whom she left behind in her escape. 

O'Donnell relates several stories of authentic (according 
to him) werewolf stories of England in recent times, 
giving the dates and places and names of the persons 
who saw the beasts. The incidents may be similar to 
those spoken of in Dicken's Haunted House, where the 
famous '"ooded woman with the howl" was seen, — or at 
least, many persons saw the owl and knew that the woman 
must be near by. These witnesses of werewolves may 
have seen animals, all right enough. Modernity is com- 
bined with medieval superstition here, and it seems 
imcanny, for instance, to identif}^ a werewolf by means 
of an electric pocket flashlight. 

In collections of folk-tales, the tribal legends of the 
American redmen as well as of Kipling's India and of 
England, there are various stories of werewolves. Among 
primitive peoples there is a close relation between the 
brute and the human and the attributing of human char- 
acteristics and powers to the beast and vice versa is com- 
mon, so that this supernatural transfer of personality^ is 
natural enough. A madwolf might suggest the idea for 
a werewolf. 

Algernon Blacla\^ood advances the theory that the were- 
wolf is a true psychical fact of profound importance, 
however it may have been garbled by superstition. He 
thinks that the werewolf is the projection of the imtamed 
slumbering sanguinar>^ instincts of man, "scouring the 
world in his fluidic body, the body of desire." As the 
mind wanders free from the conscious control of the wall 



172 The Devil and His Allies 

in sleep, so the body may free itself from the fetters of 
mind or of custom and go forth in elemental form to satisfy 
its craving to slay, to slake its wild thirst for blood. 
O'Donnell says that werewolves may be phantasms of 
the dead that cannot be at peace, or a certain kind of 
Elementals. He also thinks that they may be the projec- 
tion of one phase of man's natiire, of the cruelty latent in 
mankind that seeks expression in this way. According 
to that theory'-, a chap might have a whole menagerie 
inside him, to turn loose at inter\^als, which would be 
exciting but rather risks' for society. It was doubtless 
a nature such as this that Maupassant attempts to 
describe in his stor\^ The Wolf, where the man has all the 
instincts of the wolf 3'et never changes his human form. 

The werewolf in fiction has suffered the same leveling 
influence that we have obser\-ed in the case of the ghost, 
the devil, the witch, and the vampire. He is becoming a 
more psychical creature, a romantic figure to be sym- 
pathized with, rather than a beast to be utterly con- 
demned. In recent fiction the werewolf is represented 
as an involuntary^ and even unconscious departure from 
the human, who is shocked when he learns the truth 
about himself. Whether he be the victim of a divine 
curse, an agent of atavistic tendencies, or a being who thus 
gives vent to his real and brutish instincts, we feel a sym- 
pathy with him. We analyze his motives — at a safe 
distance — seek to understand his vagaries and to estimate 
his kinship with us. We think of him now as a noble 
figure in fiction, a lupine Galahad like Blackwood's, a 
renunciatory' hero like Eugene Field's or what not. Or 
we reflect that he may be a case of metempsychosis and 
treat him courteously, for who knows what we may be 
ourselves some day? The werewolf has not figured in 
poetry or in the drama as have other supernatural beings, 
as the ghost, the devil, the witch, the vampire, — one 



The Devil and His Allies 173 

wonders why. He is a dramatic figure and his character- 
analysis might well furnish themes for poetry though stage 
presentation would have its difficulties. 

Perhaps the revival of interest in Elizabethan literature 
has had a good deal to do with the use of supernatural 
beings in literature of recent times. The devil and the 
daemonic spirits he controls, the witches and wizards, the 
vampires, the enchanted animals, to whom he delegates 
a part of his infernal power, appear as impressive moral 
allegories, mystical stories of life, symbols of truths. As 
literature is a reflection of life, the evil as well as the good 
enters in. But since the things of the spirit are intangible 
they must be represented in concrete form, as definite 
beings whom our minds can apprehend. Thus the poets 
and dramatists and story-makers must show us images 
to shadow forth spiritual things. As with a shudder 
we close the books that tell us horrifying tales of satanic 
spirits, of accursed beings that are neither wholly animal 
nor human, of mortals with diabolic powders, we shrink 
from the evils of the soul that they represent, and re- 
cognize their essential truth in the guise of fiction. 



V 

Supernatviral Life 

THE fiction dealing with immortal life shows, more 
than any other aspect of the subject, humanity's 
deep hunger for the supernatural. Whether it be 
stories of continuance of earthly existence without death 
as in the legends of the undying persons like the Wandering 
Jew; or of supernaturally renewed or preserved youth as 
described in the tales of the elixir of life ; or of the transfer- 
ence of the soul after death into another body; or of life 
continued in the spirit in other worlds than this after the 
body's death, — all show our craving for something above 
and beyond what we know here and now. Conscious 
of our own helplessness we long to feel ourselves leagued 
with immortal powers; shrinking affrighted from the 
grave's near brink we yearn for that which would spare 
us death's sting and victory. Sadly knowing with what 
swift, relentless pace old age is overtaking us we would 
fain find something to give us eternal youth. But since 
we cannot have these gifts in our own persons we seek 
them vicariously in fiction, and for a few hours' leisured 
forgetfulness we are endowed with immortal youth and 
joy. Or, looking past death, we can feel ourselves more 
than conquerors in a life beyond. 

*'0h world unknowable, we touch thee! 
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!" 
174 



Supernatural Life 175 

We somehow snatch a strange comfort from these 
stories of a Hfe beyond our own. We are comforted for 
our mortahty when we see the tragedy that dogs the steps 
of those who may not die, whether Swift's loathsome 
Struldbrugs or the Wandering Jew. Our own ignorance 
of the future makes us credulous of an}^ man's dream of 
heaven and at the same time sceptical of an^'body else's 
hell. We are such indestructible optimists that we 
can take any sort of raw material of fiction and trans- 
mute it into stuff that hope is made of. 

The Wandering Jew. There is no legend more impres- 
sive than that of the Wandering Jew, and none save the 
F-aust theme that has so influenced literature. The story 
is as deathless as the person it portrays and has wandered 
into as many lands, though it is impossible to trace with 
certainty its origin or first migrations. There is an Arabian 
legend of one Samiri who forever wanders, crying, "Touch 
me not!" as there is a Buddhist account of a man cursed 
for working miracles for show, to whom Buddha said, 
"Thou shalt not attain Nirvana while my rehgion lasts." 
There are similar Chinese and Indian versions and the 
idea occurs in English folk-tales, where the plovers are 
thought to be the souls of those that crucified Christ, 
condemned to fly forever over the world, uttering their 
plaintive cry. 

The first appearance of the Wandering Jew in English 
literature is in the Chronicles of Roger of Wendover, who 
reports the legend as being told at the monastery of St. 
Albans by an Armenian bishop, in 1228, but to hearers 
already familiar with it. There are two distinct versions 
of the story appearing in English literature. One relates 
that the wanderer is a certain Cartapholus, a servant in 
Pilate's palace, who struck Jesus a brutal blow as He was 
led forth to death, and to whom He said, "Thou shalt 
wander till I come!" The other is of German origin 



176 Supernatural Life 

giving the personality of Ahasuerus, a shoemaker of 
Jerusalem, who mocked the Savior as He passed to Golgo- 
tha. Bowed under the weight of the cross, Christ leaned 
for a moment's rest against the door of the little shop, but 
Ahasuerus said scornfully, ''Go faster, Jew!" With 
one look of deep reproach, Christ answered, *'I go, but 
tarry thou till I come!" 

The Wandering Jew stor\^ is cosmopolitan, used in the 
literature of many lands. In Germany it has engaged 
the attention of Berthold Auerbach, Kingemann, Schlegel, 
Julius Mosen, and Chamisso, in France that of Edgar 
Quinet and Eugene Sue. Hans Christian Andersen has 
used it while Heijermans has written a Dutch play on it 
and Carmen Sylva, late Queen of Roumania, made it the 
basis for a long dramatic poem. 

The theme has appeared in various forms in English 
literature, besides in fiction where it has been most pro- 
minent. A comedy' was published in 1797, by Andrew 
Franklin, though the wanderer is here used only as a hoax. 
Wordsworth has a poem entitled The Song of the Wander- 
ing Jew, and Shelley was fascinated by the legend, as 
we see from the fact that he used it three times. One of 
his first poems, a long dramatic attempt, written at eigh- 
teen, is The Wandering Jew, a fevered poem showing the 
same weaknesses that his Gothic romances reveal, yet 
with a hint of his later power. The Wandering Jew 
appears as a definite character in both Queen Mah and 
Hellas, in the first Ahasuerus being summoned to testify 
concerning God, while he appears in the latter to give 
supernatural vision of events. In both poems he is very 
old, for in the first it is said: 

*'His port and mien bore marks of many years. . . . 

"Yet his cheek bore the mark of youth," while in the 
latter he is described as being "so old he seems to have 

' The Wandering Jew, or Love's Masquerade. 



Supernatural Life 177 

outlived a world's decay." Shelley follows the German 
version, as used in a fragment he picked up torn and 
soiled in Lincoln's Inn Fields, whose author he did not 
know. 

Mr. Eubule-Evans, in a long dramatic poem of con- 
siderable power, ^ tells the stor>" of Theudas, who could be 
released from his doom of immortality if only he would 
repent, but he will not. He renews his youth every 
forty years, growing suddenly from a decrepit man to a 
handsome, gifted youth, which naturally suggests com- 
plications of human love-affairs. Other elements of 
supematuralism are used, as angels, demons, and so forth 
while the ^ons and the Intermedii (whoever they are!) 
appear as chorus. 

The Wandering Jew, a Christmas Carol,"" retells the 
story with variations and with some power. The Jew^ 
here is shown to be very old and feeble, clad in antique 
raiment, with stigmata of the wounds on hands and feet. 
He is symbolic of the Christ, of His failure to win men. 

"For lo, at last I knew 
The lineaments of that diviner Jew, 
That like a Phantom passeth everv^where, 
The world's last hope and bitterest despair, 
Deathless, yet dead! 

And lo ! while all men come and pass away 
That phantom of the Christ, forlorn and gray, 
Haunteth the earth, with desolate footfall." 

The Wandering Jew is seen definitely once in Gothic 
fiction, in Lewis's The Monk, where a mysterious stranger, 
bearing on his forehead a burning cross imprinted, appears 
and is spoken of as the Wandering Jew. He is unable to 
stay more than fourteen days in any one place but must 

' The Curse of the Wandering Jew. »By Robert Buchanan. 

12 



178 Supernatural Life 

forever hurry on. Rev. T. Clark ^ gives a bird's-eye 
view of history such as a person of the long life and exten- 
sive migrations of the wanderer would see it. 

The idea of a deathless man appealed strongly to Haw- 
thorne, who plays with the theme in various passages 
in his works and notebooks. In A Virtuoso's Collection, 
where Peter Rugg, the Missing Man, is door-keeper and 
where the collection includes a letter from the Flying 
Dutchman to his wife, together with a flask of the elixir 
of life, the virtuoso himself is none other than the Wander- 
ing Jew. He speaks of his destiny and says that human 
prayers will not avail to aid him. The touch of his hand 
is like ice, conveying a sense of spiritual as well as physical 
chill. The character appears also as one of the guests 
in A Select Party, of whom the author remarks: "This 
personage, however, had latterly grown so common by 
mingling in all sorts of society and appearing at the beck 
of every entertainer that he could hardly be deemed a 
proper guest in an exclusive circle." This bit of satire 
illustrates how common the theme had become at that 
time in fiction. 

There are various threads of narration tangled up with 
the Wandering Jew motif. He is said by some writers 
to have supernatural power to heal disease, while by others 
he is thought to be the helpless bearer of evil and death. 
Eugene Sue in his novel represents him as carrying the 
plague, knowing his awful destiny, yet, while wildly 
regretting it, powerless in the clutch of fate. Here he 
appears as a voluntary agent of good toward the Renne- 
pont family and an involuntary minister of evil in other 
ways. An anonymous story ^ uses the same idea of the 
plague association but carries it further, for here the 

* In The Wandering Jew, or the Travels and Observations of Bareach 
the Prolonged. 

' In the Track of the Wandering Jew. 



Supernatural Life 179 

wanderer is not a personality but the plague itself, pass- 
ing like a doom over the world, which shows how far 
that phase of the legend has gone. 

The legend has been utilized variously to impress 
religious truths. Charles Granville^ writes a symbolic 
story with a definite religious message. The idea of the 
immortal wanderer is represented as the concept of a part 
of humanity urged by an earnest longing which dominates 
their whole life and thought, the desire that a new kingdom 
of God might come. The book is a social satire, an appeal 
for the coming of a real democracy, real justice and genuine 
spirituality . George Croly ^ has for his purpose the proving 
that Christ's second coming is near at hand. Lew Wal- 
lace, who himself uses the theme of the Wanderer, thought 
this book one of the half dozen volumes which taken alone 
would constitute a British literature. We are likely 
to find ourselves questioning Wallace's judgment in the 
matter, for while the novel is interesting and has a sermon 
impressed with some interest, it is by no means a great 
piece of literature. Salathiel is pictured as a young, 
enthusiastic, passionate Jew striving to defend his country 
against the woes that threaten her. His life is given in 
detail immediately following his unpardonable sin, and 
his definite career ends with the destruction of Jerusalem, 
though his immortality is suggested at the close. The 
book describes many supernatural happenings, the miracu- 
lous phenomena accompanying the death of Christ and 
manifestations following the fate of the city. 

In Lew Wallace's The Prince of India the deathless 
man appears again. In the beginning of the story he 
enters a vault from which he removes the treasure from 
mummy cases, remarking that the place has not been 
visited since he was there a thousand years before. He 

^ In The Plaint of the Wandering Jew. 

» In Salathiel the Immortal, or Tarry Thou Till I Come. 



i8o Supernatural Life 

has numerous impressive experiences, such as seeing a 
monk that seems the reincarnation of Jesus, and hearing 
again the centurion's call to him. Wallace pictures the 
Jew as old, a philosopher, in contrast to Salathiel's impetu- 
ous youth. He is striving to bring the sons of men into 
closer spiritual truth with each other and with God, as 
Salathiel tries to prevent the material destruction of the 
city. The sense of responsibility, the feeling of a mission 
toward others, expressed in this novel, may be compared 
with that of Eugene Sue's Wandering Jew who acts as a 
friend to the Rennepont family, protecting their interests 
against the wily Jesuits. 

The Wandering Jew has been represented in many 
ways, with stress placed on various aspects of his life 
and character. He has been depicted psychologically, 
as a suffering human being, mythologically to illustrate 
the growth and change in life, religiously to preach 
certain tenets and beliefs, and symbolically to show 
forth the soul of man. He appears symbolically as the 
creature accursed of God, driven forever in the face of 
doom. Shelley and others show him as vainly attempting 
suicide, but living on, anguished yet deathless, in the face 
of every effort to take his own life as in the teeth of torture 
from others. He stands at once for the undying power 
of God's plan, and, as in Robert Buchanan's version, for 
the typified failure of Christ's mission. He is used to 
prove that Christ's second coming is near, and to prove 
also that He will never come. To the Christian he stands 
for the evidence of Christ's power of divinity, while to 
the Jew he is a symbol of that imhappy race that wanders 
ever, with no home in any land. 

Besides those mentioned, other English and American 
writers who have made use of the legend are Kipling; 
Bram Stoker, who discusses him in his assembly of Famous 
Impostors; M. D. Conway, who gives various versions 



Supernatural Life i8i 

of the story; David Hoffman, Henry Set on Merriman, S. 
Baring-Gould, W. H. Ainsworth, and others. 

A legend closely associated with this and yet separate, is 
that of a woman who bore the curse of eternal wandering. 
One version brings in Herodias as the doomed woman, 
while the character of Kundry in Parsifal represents 
another feminine wanderer. William Sharp, in his Gypsy 
Christ, gives the story differently still, saying that it is not 
correctly told in Parsifal. As Sharp tells it, it is a piece 
of tragic symbolism. Kundry, a gypsy woman of evil 
life, mocks Christ on Golgotha and demands of Him a sign, 
to whom He says, '*To thee and thine I bequeath the signs 
of my Passion to be a shame and horror among thy people 
f orevermore ! " Upon her hands and feet appear the 
stigmata of His wounds, never to fade away, and to be 
borne by her descendants in every third generation. 
Various ones of her descendants are crucified, and wherever 
the wanderers go on earth they bear the marks of horror. 
The curse would be lifted from them only when a Gypsy 
Christ should be born of a virgin; but then the Children 
of the Wind should be dispersed and vanish from among 
men. In the last chapter Naomi prophesies that she is 
to give birth to the Gypsy Christ. 

The theme of the Wandering Jew, while rivalling the 
Faust legend in impressiveness and in the frequence with 
which it has been used in literature, yet is different in 
having had no adequate representation. No truly great 
poem or drama or novel has been written concerning 
this tragic, deathless character. Perhaps it may come yet. 
Only hints of his personality have appeared in very recent 
fiction, such as the reincarnation in the character of the 
young Jew in A. T. Quiller-Couch's story. The Mystery of 
Joseph Laquedem, or the humorous reference to him in 
Brander Matthews's Primer of Imaginary Geography, 
or The Holy Cross by Eugene Field, where the wanderer 



1 82 Supernatural Life 

is pitied by a Spanish priest iii Cortez's train in Mexico. 
His pra^'ers win forgiveness and the tortured Jew dies. 
After his death an earthquake supematurall}^ splits a 
gulf on each side of the grave and a cross of snow^ appears 
there, to remain forever. Perhaps the theme is fading 
out now in fiction and drama, to disappear completely, 
or perhaps it is lying forgotten for a while, waiting the 
master hand that shall give it adequate treatment. 

Elixir of Life. Immortality that proves such a curse 
in the case of the Wandering Jew forms the basis for 
various other stories. The elixir of life was a favorite 
theme with the Gothicists, being used by Maturin, 
Godwin, and Shelley, and has continued to furnish 
complication for fiction since that time. The theme 
has been popular on the continent as well as in England, 
Balzac and Hoffman being the most impressive users 
of it. 

Bulwer-Lytton, in A Strange Story, introduces the elixir 
of life together with other forms of supernaturalism, such 
as mesmerism, magic, spectral apparitions, invisible 
manifestations, a.wi\il bodiless Eyes, a gigantic Foot, and 
so forth. Margrave attempts to concoct the potion that 
shall give him endless life, but after mysterious prepara- 
tions, incantations, and supernatural manifestations, at 
the crucial moment a stampede of maddened beasts, 
urged forward by the dreadful Foot, dashes the beaker 
from his lips. The irreplaceable liquid wastes its force 
on the desert sands, where a magic richness of herbage 
instantly springs up in contrast to the barrenness around 
it. Flowers bloom, miyriads of insects hover round them, 
and all is life, but the man who sought the elLxir with such 
pains lies dead. The author suggests a symbolic meaning 
for his story, hinting that the scientist's laboratory holds 
many elixirs of life, that all growth and life are magical, 
that all being is miraculous. 



Supernatural Life 183 

Rider Haggard, in She and Ayesha, its sequel, describes 
a wonderful woman who possesses the secret of eternal 
life and has lived for thousands of years, ever young and 
beautiful, supernaturally enchanting. Her magic potion 
not only gives her length of days but protection against 
danger as well, for her rival's dagger glances harmlessly 
away from her, and she is proof against chance and fate. 
She gains her immortal life partly by bathing in a secret 
essence or vapor whose emanations give her mystic force 
and immortal beauty. There are many other elements 
of supernaturalism in association with the not impossible 
She, — magic vision, reincarnation, a mystic light that 
envelops her body, the power to call up the dead, to 
reanimate the skeletons in the desert and raise them 
to dreadful life. She is an interesting but fearsome per- 
sonality. 

In Ahrinziman, by Anita Silvani, we have magic chem- 
istry yielding up the elixir of life. Jelul-uh-din has lived 
for five hundred years and looks forward to a still more 
protracted existence. His magic drug not only gives him 
prolonged life but will do anything he wishes besides, 
since he has hypnotized it. Yet he is found dead. "On 
his wrists were marks of giant fingers, scorched and burnt 
into the flesh like marks of hot iron. And on his throat 
were marks of a similar hand which had evidently strangled 
him." It is apparent that his master, the De'il, got 
impatient and cut short the leisurely existence that he 
felt belonged to him. 

Hawthorne was greatly interested in the theme of the 
elixir of life. He gives us two brews of it in Septimius 
Felton, one an Indian potion concocted by an old sachem. 
The red man gets so old that his tribe find him a great 
nuisance and obstacle to progress so they gravely request 
permission to kill him. But his skull is so hard that the 
stone hammers are smashed when they try to brain him, 



1 84 Supernatural Life 

his skin so tough that no arrows will pierce it, and 
nothing seems to avail. Finally they fill his mouth and 
nostrils with clay and put him in the sun to bake, till 
presently his heart bursts with a loud explosion, tearing 
his body to fragments. This brew of his is matched by 
one made by an European scientist after long endeavors. 
Here the ultimate ingredient is supposed to be a strange 
herb that grows from a mysterious grave. At last, just 
when the youth thinks he has the right combination, the 
woman who has lured him on to destruction dashes the 
cup from his lips, saving him from the poison he would 
have drunk. The flower has grown from the grave of 
her lover, whom the young scientist has murdered. 

In The Dolliver Romance, that pathetic fragment Haw- 
thorne left unfinished at his death, we find another treat- 
ment of the theme. It seems symbolic that in his old 
age and failing powers, he should have been thinking of 
immortal youth, of deathless life. In this story various 
magical elements are introduced. The herbs grown in 
old Grandsir Dolliver's garden have a strange power, 
for when a woman lays a flower from one on her breast, 
it glows like a gem and lends a bloom of youth to her 
cheeks. The old man seeks the one unknown essence, 
the incalculable element necessary to make up the elixir 
of life, as did the youth in Septimius Felton. He drinks 
occasional mouthfuls of a strange cordial that he finds 
in an old bottle on the shelf, and seems to grow younger 
and stronger. He, too, like Septimius, has a visitor; a 
man that demands the cordial as belonging to him by 
ancestral right, snatches it from the aged hands, drinks 
it down at a draught and grows violently young, but dies 
in convulsions. 

In Dr. Heidigger's Experiment Hawthorne gives us 
another sad symbolic story of the quest of the elixir of 
youth. The old physician invites four aged friends to 



Supernatural Life 185 

make an experiment, to drink of a cordial which shall 
restore youth, but which he himself is too wise to share. 
The strange potion proves its power by restoring to beauty 
and perfume a rose that has been dead for over fifty years. 
When the old persons drink they become young and 
happy and beautiful once more. Age drops from them 
like a mantle discarded and the world glows again with pas- 
sion and color and joy. But alas ! it is only ephemeral, for 
the effects soon pass away and senility is doubly tragic 
after one snatched hour of joy and youth. There is a 
sad philosophy of life expressed in these symbolic allegories 
such as Hawthorne alone knows how to tell. 

Elsewhere Hawthorne shows his deep interest in the 
theme. In The Birthmark the scientist intimates that he 
could brew the life elixir if he would, but that it would 
produce a discord in nature such as all the world, and 
chiefly he that drank it, would curse at last. The subject 
is referred to in other places,^ and a flask of the precious, 
dreadful elixir is one of the treasures in the Virtuoso's 
collection. In a note concerning his use of the theme 
in The Dolliver Romance Hawthorne states that he has 
been accused of plagiarizing from Dumas, but that in 
reality Dumas plagiarized from him, since his book was 
many years the earlier. 

H. G. Wells ^ uses this theme combined with the transfer 
of personality. An aged man bargains with a youth 
to make him his heir on certain conditions. The purpose, 
unknown to the young fellow, is to rob him of his youth 
to reanimate the old man. A magic drink transfers the 
personality of the octogenarian to the body of youth 
and leaves the young man's soul cabined in the worn- 
out frame. But the drug is more powerful than Mr. 
Elvesham supposed, for it brings death to both who drink 

' In Dr. BuUivant. 

^ In The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham. 



iS6 Supernatural Life 

it and the bargain has a ghastly climax. Barry Pain has 
a somewhat similar situation of the tragic miscal dilation, 
in The Wrong Elixir, the story of an alchemist who brews 
the life-giving potion but means to keep it all to him- 
self. On a certain night he will drink it and become im- 
mortally young, in a world of dying men. While he waits, 
a gypsy girl asks him to give her a poison to kill a man she 
hate^. He prepares the potion for her and sets it aside. 
He drinks at the time he planned, but instead of eternal 
life, the draught brings him swift-footed death. Does he 
drink the WTong elixir, or have all his calculations been 
wrong ? 

An example of the way in which the magic of the old 
fiction of supernaturalism has been transferred into the 
scientific in modern times, is seen in The Elixir of Youth, 
by Albert Bigelow Paine. A man in an upper room 
alone is wishing that he had the gift of immortal youth, 
when a stranger in black enters and answers his thought. 
He tells him that to read the mind is not black magic, 
but science; that he is not a magician, but a scientist, and 
as such he has compounded the elixir of youth, which he 
will give to him. This drug will enable a man to halt his 
age at any year he chooses and to make it permanent, as 
Peter Ibbetson and the Duchess of Towers did in their 
dream-life. The stranger leaves the flask with the man 
and goes away. But the one who wished for immortal 
life decides that after all God must know best, and, 
though his decision not to drink has not crystalized, he 
is not greatly sorry when the flask is shattered and the 
liquid spilled. This is symbolic of the real wisdom of 
life. 

The frequent use of the theme of the elixir of life, of 
deathless youth, illustrates how humanity clutches at 
youth with pathos and shrinks from age. Red Ranrahan, 
the loved singer of Ireland, whom W. B. Yeats creates 



Supernatural Life 187 

for us with unforgettable words, makes a curse against 
old age when he feels it creeping on him. 

Various other stories of supernatural length of years 
appear in English fiction, besides those based on the 
definite use of the Hfe elixir. The Woman from Yonder, 
by Stephen French Whitman, shows us the revived, re- 
animated body of a woman who has been buried in a 
glacier since Hannibal crossed the Alps, till she is dug out 
and miraculously restored, by blood-transfusion, by an 
interfering scientist. The writer queries, "If the soul 
exists, where had that soul been? What regions did it 
relinquish at the command of the reviving body?" A 
humorous application of the idea of the deathless man 
is seen in A. Conan Doyle's The Los Amigos Fiasco, 
where the citizens of a frontier town, wishing to kill a 
criminal by some other method than the trite rope, try to 
kill him by putting him in connection with a big dynamo. 
But their amateur efforts have a peculiar effect. They 
succeed only in so magnetizing his body that it is impossi- 
ble for him to die. They try shooting, hanging, and so 
forth, but he has gained such an access of vitahty from 
electricity that he comes out unscathed through every- 
thing, resembling the ancient sachem in Hawthorne's 
novel. 

The Flying Dutchman forms the theme for stories in 
folklore, of a wanderer of the seas condemned to touch 
shore only once in seven years, because he swore he would 
round Cape Horn in spite of heaven and hell. Hawthorne 
has preserved a letter from the Dutchman to his wife, in 
the Virtuoso's collection, and John Kendrick Bangs has 
furnished the inevitable parody in his Pursuit of the House- 
boat. The Dead Ship of Harpwell is another story of a 
wandering, accursed ship. There is a similar legend told 
by C. M. Skinner, ' of a man, who, for a cruel murder of a 

^ In Myths and Legends of Our Land. 



1 88 Supernatural Life 

servant, was condemned to wear always a halter round 
his neck and was unable to die. 

Bram Stoker furnishes us with several interesting 
specimens of supernatural life, always tangled with 
other uncanny motives. The count, in Dracula, who 
has lived his vampire life for centuries, is said to be hale 
and fresh as if he were forty. Of course, all vam- 
pires live to a strange lease on life, but most of them 
are spirits rather than human beings as was Dracula. 
In The Lair of the White Worm, Stoker tells of a woman 
who was at once an alluring woman and a snake thousands 
of years old. The snake is so large that, when it goes out 
to walk, it looks like a high white tower, and can gaze over 
the tops of the trees. 

Bulwer-Lyt ton's The Haunters and the Haunted tells the 
story of a mysterious being who passes through untold 
years with a strange power over life and the personality of 
others. He appears, no man knows whence nor why, and 
disappears as strangely, while about his whole career 
is a shroud of mystery. Thackeray, in his Notch on the 
Axe, burlesques this and similar stories in playful satire, 
yet seems to enjoy his theme. It is not wholly a burlesque, 
we may suppose. He adds a touch of realism to his 
humorous description by the fact that, throughout his 
hero's long-continued life, or series of lives — one doesn't 
know which — he retains always his German-Jewish ac- 
cent. Andrew Lang describes ' the person who may have 
been the original of these stories iti real life. Horace 
Walpole has mentioned him in his letters and he seems 
to have a teasing mystery about his life and career that 
makes him much talked-of. 

Edwin Lester Arnold ' tells a story of continued life with 
an Oriental setting and mystery. Edward Bellamy's 

'In St. Germain the Deathless. 

' In The Strange Adventures of Phra the Phcenician. 



Supernatural Life 189 

Looking Backward t by the introduction of a magic sleep 
makes a man live far beyond the natural span and be able 
to see into the distant future, while the youth in Mark 
Twain's A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court has 
a magic length of life, living a dual existence, in Arthurian 
England and in present-day America. H. G. Wells ^ uses 
something of the same idea, in that he makes his hero 
live a very long time in a few hours, compressing time 
into minute tabules, as it were, as he does in another story 
of the magic accelerator that makes a man live fast and 
furiously with tenfold powers at crucial moments. The 
story of Peter Rugg, the Missing Man, is that of another 
immortal wanderer, whose story is told in Myths and 
Legends of Our Land, and utilized by Alfred Austin. He 
goes out into a storm, saying, "I will see home to-night 
or I will never see it!" He flies forever pursued by the 
storm, never resting, and never seeing his home. This is 
symbolic of the haunted soul pursued by its own destiny. 

The theme of the elixir of life is one of the old motifs 
of supematuralism retained in modern fiction. The con- 
ventional alchemist has given place to a more up-to-date 
investigator in the chemical laboratory, yet the same thrill 
of interest is imparted by the thought of a magic potion 
prepared by man that shall endow him with earthly im- 
mortality. The theme has changed less in its treatment 
and symbolism than most of the supernatural elements in 
fiction, for though we see the added elements of modern 
satire and symbolism, its essential aspects remain the 
same. 

Metempsychosis. The idea of metempsychosis, the 
thought that at death the soul of a human being may 
pass into another mortal body or into a lower stage, into 
an animal or even a plant, has been used considerably 
in English fiction. This Oriental belief has its basis in 

* In his Time Machine. 



190 Supernatural Life 

antiquity, in animistic ideas in primitive culture. One of 
the earliest appearances of the theme in English fiction is 
that middle-eighteenth-century story of Dr. John Hawkes- 
worth's, ^ an account of a soul that has not behaved itself 
seemly, so descends in the spiritual scale till it ends by 
being a flea. The German Hoffmann used the theme 
repeatedly, and Poe, who was to a certain extent influenced 
by his supematuralism, employs it in several stories. In 
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains, the young man named 
Bedlo experiences, in dreams of extraordinary vividness, 
the life of battle, of confusion, ending in death, in a tropi- 
cal city. He sees himself die, struck on the temple by a 
poisoned arrow. He is recognized by an elderly man as 
the exact counterpart of a Mr. Oldeb who perished in the 
manner dreamed of in a battle in Benares. Mr. Bedlo, 
while wandering in the mountains of Virginia, contracts 
a cold and fever, for the cure of which leeches are applied, 
but by mistake a poisonous sangsue is substituted for the 
leech, and the patient dies of a wound on the temple, 
similar to that caused by a poisoned arrow. Poe's con- 
cept in other stories is not that of the conventionally 
easy passage of the soul into the body of a new-born babe 
that wouldn't be expected to put up much of a fight, 
but he makes the psychic feature the central horror, 
saying in that connection that man is on the brink of 
tremendous psychical discoveries. In Morella the theme 
is used with telling power, where the wife, once greatly 
loved but now loathed, on her deathbed tells her husband 
that her child will live after her. The daughter grows 
up into supernatural likeness of her mother, but remains 
nameless, since her father, for a reason he cannot analyze, 
hesitates to give her any name. But at last, as she stands 
before the altar to be christened, some force outside the 
father causes him to call her Morella. 

' The Transmigration of a Soul. 



Supernatural Life 191 

What more than fiend convulsed the features of my child, 
and overspread them with the hues of death, as, starting at 
that scarcely audible sound, she turned her glassy eyes from 
earth to heaven, and falling prostrate on the black slabs of 
our ancestral vault, responded, **I am here"! 



The young girl is found to be dead and the father says : 
* 'With my own hands I bore her to the tomb ; and I laughed, 
with a long and bitter laugh, as I found no traces of the 
first in the charnel where I laid the second Morella." 

An obvious imitation of Poe's story is found in Bram 
Stoker's novel, The Jewel of Seven Stars, where the soul 
of an Egyptian princess enters into the body of a baby 
born to one of the explorers who rifle her tomb. The 
child grows into the perfect duplicate of the princess, 
even showing on her wrists the marks of violence that 
cut off the mummy's hand. The Egyptian's familiar, a 
mummified cat, comes to life to revenge itself upon the 
archaeologists who have disturbed the tomb. When by 
magic incantations and scientific experiments combined, 
the collectors try to revivify the mummy, the body 
mysteriously disappears, and the young girl is found dead, 
leading us to suppose that the reanimated princess has 
stolen the girl's life for her own. 

In Ligeia, another of Poe's morbid studies of metempsy- 
chosis, the theme is clearly announced, as quoted from 
Joseph Glanville: "Man doth not yield himself to the 
angels nor unto death utterly save only through the 
weakness of his own feeble will." The worshipped Ligeia 
dies, and in an hour of madness her husband marries 
the Lady Rowena. The bride soon sickens and as the 
husband watches alone by her bed at midnight, he sees 
drops of ruby liquid fall from some mysterious source, into 
the wine he is offering her. When the Lady Rowena 
presently dies, the husband, again alone with her, sees 



192 Supernatural Life 

the corpse undergo an awful transformation. It is 
reanimated, but the body that lives is not that of Rowena, 
but of Ligeia, who has come back to life again by exerting 
her deathless will over the physical being of her rival. 
The climax with which the story closes has perhaps no 
parallel in fiction. As for the ruby drops, are we to 
think of them as an elixir of life for the dead Ligeia strug- 
gling back to being, or as poison to slay the living Rowena? 

Ligeia's story is reflected, or at least shows an evident 
influence, in The Second Wife, by Mary Heaton Vorse. 
Here again the dead wife comes to oust her supplanter, 
but in this instance the interloper does not die, but without 
dying merely becomes the person and the personality of 
the first wife. The change is gradual but incontrovertible, 
felt by the woman herself before it is complete, and 
noticed by the husband and the mother-in-law. Here the 
human will, indestructible by death, asserts itself over 
mortal flesh and effects a transfer of personality. But 
where did the second wife's soul go, pray, — the ''she o' 
the she" as Patience Worth would say? 

A similar transfer of soul, effected while both persons 
are living but caused by the malignance of an evil dead 
spirit, is found in Blackwood's The Terror of the Twins. 
A father, who resents the fact that instead of a single heir 
twins are born to him, swears in his madness before he 
dies, that before their majority he will bring it to pass 
that there shall be only one. By the help of powers 
from the Pit he filches from the younger his vitality, his 
strength of mind and soul and body, his personality, and 
gives this access of power to the elder. The younger 
dies a hopeless idiot and the elder lives on with a double 
dower of being. Ambrose Bierce carries this idea to a 
climax of horror,^ when he makes an evil spirit take 
possession of a dead mother's body and slay her son, who 

' In The Death of Halpin Frazer. 



Supernatural Life 193 

recognizes his loved mother's face, knows that it is her 
eyes that glare fiend-like at him, her hands that are 
strangling him, — yet cannot know that it is a hideous 
fiend in her corpse. 

The theme of metempsychosis is found tangled up with 
various other motives in fiction, the use of the elixir of 
life, hypnotism, dream-supematuralism, witchcraft and so 
forth. Rider Haggard has given a curious combination of 
metempsychosis, and the supernatural continuance of life 
by means of the elixir, in She and its sequel, Ayesha. 
The wonderful woman, the dread She-who-must-be- 
obeyed who keeps her youth and beauty by means of 
bathing in the magic fluid, recognizes in various stages 
of her existence the lover whom she has known thousands 
of years before. Not having the advantage of the Turkish 
bath or patent medicine, he dies periodically and has 
to be born all over again in some other century. This is 
agitating to the lady, so she determines to inoculate him 
with immortality so that they can reign together without 
those troublesome interruptions of mortality. But the 
impatient lover insists on kissing her, which proves too 
much for him, since her divinity is fatal to mere mankind, 
so he dies again. 

The close relation between metempsychosis and hypnot- 
ism is shown in various stories. Several cases of trouble- 
some atavistic personality or reincarnation are cured by 
psychotherap3^ Theodora, a young woman in a novel by 
Frances Fenwick Williams, bearing that title-name, re- 
alizes herself to be the reincarnation of a remote ancestress, 
an Orientalist, a witch, who has terrorized the country 
with her sorceries. She is cured of her mental hauntings 
by means of hypnotism. Another novel by the same 
author, ^ gives also the reincarnation of a witch character 
in modern life, with a cure effected b\ psycho-analysis. 

^ A Soul on Fire. 



194 ■ Supernatural Life 

The young woman discovers herself to be the heiress of a 
curse, which is removed only after study of pre-natal 
influences and investigations concerning the subconscious 
self. 

x\s is seen by these examples, the relation between witch- 
craft and metempsychovsis is very close, since in recent 
fiction the witch characters have unusual powers of 
returning to life in some other form. In Algernon Black- 
wood's Ancient Sorceries, we have witch-metempsychosis 
on a large scale, the population of a whole village being 
but the reanimations of long-dead witches and wizards 
who once lived there. I know of no other case of mob- 
metempsychosis in English fiction, but the instances 
where several are reincarnated at once are numerous. 
Algernon Blackwood's recent novel, Jtiles Le Vallon, is 
based on a story of collective reincarnation, the chief 
characters in the dramatic action realizing that they 
have lived and been associated with each other before, 
and feeling that they must expiate a sin of a previous 
existence. Another recent novel by Blackwood, The 
Wave, has for its theme the reincarnation of the prin- 
cipal characters, realized by them. Blackwood has been 
much drawn to psychic subjects in general and metem- 
psychosis in particular, for it enters into many of his 
stories. In Old Clothes he gives us an instance of a 
child who knows herself to be the reborn personality 
of some one else and suffers poignantly in reliving the 
experiences of that long-dead ancestress, while those 
around her are recognized as the companions of her life 
of the far past, though they are unaware of it. The 
fatuous remark of lovers in fiction, that they feel that 
they have lived and loved each other in a previous exist- 
ence, is a literary bromide now, but has its basis in a 
recurrence in fiction. Antonio Fogazzaro's novel. The 
Woman, is a good example in Italian, — for the woman feels 



Supernatural Life i95 

that she and her lover are reincarnations of long-dead selves 
who have suffered tragic experiences together, which 
morbid idea culminates in tragic madness. 

The Mystery of Joseph Laquedem, by A. T. Quiller- 
Couch, is a striking story of dual reincarnation. A 
young Jew in England and a half-witted girl, a farmer's 
daughter, recognize in each other and in themselves, the 
personalities of a young Jew led to the lions for becoming 
a Christian, and a Roman princess who loved him. They 
recall their successive lives wherein they have known 
and loved each other, to be separated by cruel destiny 
each time, but at last they die a tragic death together. 
The character of the man here is given additional interest 
for us in that he is said to be a reincarnation of Car- 
tapholus, Pilate's porter, who struck Jesus, bidding Him 
go faster, and who is immortalized as the Wandering Jew. 
Here he lives successive lives rather than a continuous 
existence. Somewhat similar to this is another combi- 
nation of hypnotism and metempsychosis in The Witch 
of Prague, by F. Marion Crawford, where Uorna makes 
Israel Kafka go through the physical and psychical tor- 
tures of Simon Abeles, a young Jew killed by his people 
for becoming a Christian. By hypnotism the young man 
is made to pass through the experiences of a dead youth 
of whom he has never heard, and to die his death anew. 

There is a close relation between dreams and metempsy- 
chosis, as is seen in certain stories. Kipling's charming 
prose idyll, The Brushwood Boy, may be called a piece of 
dream-metempsychosis, for the youth and girl when they 
first meet in real life recognize in each other the com- 
panions of their childhood and adolescent dream-life, and 
complete their dual memories. They have dreamed 
the same dreams even to minute details of conversa- 
tion, and familiar names. Du Maurier combines the two 
motives very skillfully in his novels, for it is in succes- 



196 Supernatural Life 

sive dreams that the Martian reveals herself to Barty 
Joscelyn telling him of her life on another planet, and 
inspiring him to write — or writing for him — books of 
genius, before she takes up earthly life in one of his chil- 
dren. She tells him that she will come to him no more 
in dreams, but that she will live in the child that is to 
be born. And in dual dreams Peter Ibbetson and the 
Duchess of Towers live over again their childhood life 
together, are able to find at will their golden yesterdays, 
and know in happy reality the joys of the past, while 
the present keeps them cruelly apart. They are able to 
call back to shadowy life their common ancestors, to see 
and hear the joys, the work, the griefs they knew so long 
ago. They plumb their sub-consciousness, dream over 
again their sub-dreams, until they at last not only see 
these long-dead men and women, but become them. 

We could each be Gatienne for a space (though not both of 
us together) and when we resumed our own personality again 
we carried back with it a portion of hers, never to be lost 
again — strange phenomenon if the reader will but think of 
it, and constituting the germ of a comparative personal im- 
mortality on earth. 

Not only does Peter live in the past, but he has the power 
to transport these dead ancestors of his to his present 
and let them share in his life, so that Gatienne, a French 
woman dead for generations, lives over again in an English 
prison as Peter Ibbetson, or travels as Mary Towers, 
seeing things she never had dreamed of m her own life. 

H. G. Wells in A Dream of Armageddon gives a curious 
story of the dream-future. A man in consecutive visions 
sees himself killed. He then dreams that he is another 
man, living in a different part of the world, far in the 
future, till he sees himself die in his second personality. 
He describes his experiences as given in "a dream so ac- 



Supernatural Life 197 

curate that afterwards you remember little details you had 
forgotten." He suffers tortures of love and grief, so that 
his dream-life of the future is infinitely more real to him 
than his actual existence of his own time. What was the 
real "him o' him," to quote Patience Worth, the man 
of the dream-future, or the business man of the present 
telling the stors' to his friend? 

A different version of metempsychosis is shown in 
The Immortal Gymnasts, by Marie Cher, for here the 
beloved trio, Pantaloon, Harlequin and Columbine are 
embodied as human beings and come to live among men. 
Harlequin has the power of magic vision which enables 
him to see into the minds and hearts of mortals by means 
of "cloud-currents." This question of — shall we say 
transmigration? — of fictive characters into actual life is 
foimd in various stories, such as Kipling's The Last of 
the Stories, John Kendrick Bangs' The Rehellioiis Heroifie, 
and others. It illustrates the fantastic use to which 
every serious theme is sooner or later put. There is no 
motif in supernatural literature that is not parodied in 
some form or other, if only by suggestion. 

The S3^mbolic treatment of metempsychosis is strongly 
evident in recent fiction, as the theme lends itself particu- 
larly well to the allegoric and symbolic style. Barry 
Pain's Exchange shows aspects of transmigration different 
from the conventional treatment, for he describes the 
soul of the old man as giving up its right to peace that it 
might purchase ease for a soul he loved. He passes 
into the body of a captive bird beating its hopeless wings 
against the bars and tortured with pain and thirst, as a 
mark of the witch woman's wrath, while the soul of the 
young girl goes into the body of a snow-white lamb that 
lives a day then is set free. As she passes by, in the state 
of a freed soul, she sees the piteous bird, and says to 
herseh, "I am glad I was never a bird." 



198 Supernatural Life 

Algernon Blackwood, in The Return, gives a pectiliar 
story of metempsychosis, where the selfish materialist 
finds himself suddenly reinforced with a new personality 
from without. His e^'es are opened miraculously to the 
magic and beauty of the world, and he knows beyond 
doubt that his friend, the artist, who promised to come 
to him when he died, has died and that his soul has become 
a part of his own being. The most impressive example 
of this sudden merging of two natures, two souls into 
one, is foimd in Granville Barker's Souls on Fifth. Here 
a man suddenly acquires, or recognizes, the power to see 
the souls that linger earth-boimd aroimd him, and comes 
to have a strange sympathy with that of a woman, whom 
he calls the ' ' Little Soul. ' ' When he speaks of going away, 
after a time, she begs him not to leave her since she is very 
lonely in this wilderness of imbodied souls. She asks 
that if he will not take her into his soul, he cany^ her 
to some wide prairie, and there in the unspaced expanse 
leave her, — but instead he gives a reluctant consent for 
her to enter into his life. He presses the little symbolic 
figure to his heart, then feels a new sense of being, of 
personality, and knows that her soul has become forever 
a part of his. 

Lord Dunsany, who lends a strange, new beauty to 
every supernatural theme he touches, has a little prose- 
poem of symbolic metempsychosis, called Usury, where 
Yohu, one of the evil spirits, lures the shadows to work for 
him by giving them gleaming lives to poHsh. 

And ever Yohu lures more shadows and sends them to 
brighten his Lives, sending the old Lives out again to make 
them brighter still; and sometimes he gives to a shadow 
a Life that was once a king's and sendeth him with it down to 
the earth to play the part of a beggar, or sometimes he sendeth 
a beggar's Life to plav the part of a king. What careth 
Yohu? 



Supernatural Life 199 

Spiritualism and Psychical Research. The influence 
of modern Spiritualism and Psychical Research on the 
literature of supematuralism has been marked, espe- 
cially of late years. It would be inevitable that move- 
ments which interest so many persons, among them 
many of more than ordinary- intelligence, should be re- 
flected in fiction. These two aspects of the subject will 
be treated together since they are closely allied. For 
though Spiritualism is a form of religion and Psychical 
Research a new science, — and so-called religion and so- 
called science are not always parallel — the lines of inves- 
tigation here are similar. While Spiritualism endeavors 
to get in touch with the spirits of the dead that the liv- 
ing may be comforted and enlightened, and Psychical 
Research attempts to classify the supposedly authentic 
cases of such communication, and in so much their 
methods of approach are different, — yet the results may 
be discussed together. 

Hawthorne was interested in Spiritualism as literary 
material, since a discussion of it is mtroduced in Blithedale 
Romance and various passages in his notebooks treat of 
the matter showing the fascination it had for him. Mrs. 
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, in addition to her fictional 
treatises of heaven, takes up Spiritualism as well. In 
The Day of My Death she gives a satiric account of the 
return of a spirit who says he is a lost soul tortured in hell. 
He doubtless deserves it, for he sticks the baby full of 
pins and ties it to a tree, and folds the clothes from the 
wash in the shape of corpses. He is still interested in this 
life, however, since he requests a piece of squash pie. In 
Kentucky's Ghost she depicts a spirit actuated by definite 
malice. In the previous story seven mediums tell a man 
that he will die at a certain day and hour, but he lives 
cheerfully on. 

William Dean Howells has given a study in his usual 



200 Supernatural Life 

kindly satire and sympathetic seriousness, of the phen- 
omena of Spiritualism and mesmerism, in The Undiscovered 
Country. Dr. Boynton, a mistaken zealot, holds seances 
assisted by his daughter, a delicate, sensitive girl who is 
physically prostrated after each performance and begs 
her father to spare her. She acts as medium where the 
usual effects of rapping, table levitation, and so forth take 
place, where spirit hands wave in the air and messages, 
grave and jocular, are delivered. The characterization 
is handled with skill to bring out the sincerity of each 
person involved in the web of superstition and false belief, 
and Howells shows real sympathy with each, the scoffers 
as well as the misguided fanatics. It is only when the 
doctor looks death in the face that he realizes his error 
and seeks to know by faith in the Bible the truths of the 
far country of the soul. 

Hamlin Garland has shown considerable interest in 
Spiritualism in his fiction. He refuses to commit himself 
as to his own opinion of the question, but he has written 
two novels dealing with it. The Tyranny of the Dark and 
The Shadow World. The former is considerably like 
Howells's novel, for here also a young girl is made the 
innocent victim of fanatics, her mother and a preacher 
who has fallen in love with her. She is made to take part 
in spiritualistic manifestations, whether as a victim of 
fraud or as a genuine medium the author leaves in doubt. 
When the girl casts him off the preacher kills himself that 
he may come into closer communication with her after 
death than he has been able to do in life. Richard Harding 
Davis has contributed a volume with a similar plot, the 
exploitation of an innocent and, of course, beautiful girl 
by fanatics, in Vera the Medium. Here the girl is more 
than half aware that she is a fraud and in her last seance, 
at the conclusion of which she is to be carried trium- 
phantly away by her lover, the New York district attorney, 



Supernatural Life 201 

she dramatically confesses her deception. As a sympathy- 
getter, she pleads that she was very lonely, that because 
her grandmother and mother were mediums, she had been 
cut off from society. **I used to play round the kitchen 
stove with Pocahontas and Alexander the Great, and 
Martin Luther lived in our china closet." 

David Belasco's The Return of Peter Grimm, drama and 
novel, is based upon spiritualistic manifestations. We 
are told that the "envelope" or shadow-self of a sleeper 
has been photographed by means of radio-photography. 
When a certain part of the shadow body is pricked with a 
pin, as the cheek, the corresponding portion of the sleeper's 
body is seen to bleed. Peter Grimm comes back from the 
other world to direct the actions of the living, and though 
at first only a child sees him, — for children are the best 
sensitives save animals, — eventually the adults recognize 
him also and yield to his guidance. Spiritualism enters 
directly or indirectly into many works of fiction of late 
years. Whether people believe in it or not, they are 
thinking and writing about it. The subject receives its 
usual humorous turn in various stories, as Nelson Lloyd's 
The Last Ghost in Harmony, the story of a specter who 
complains of the scientific unimaginativeness of his vil- 
lage, saying that though he had entreated the spooks 
to hold out for a little while as he had heard Spiritualism 
was headed that way and would bring about a revival of 
interest in ghosts, the spirits all got discouraged and quit 
the place. And we recall Sandy's mournful comment to 
Mark Twain's Captain Stormfield, that he wished there 
was something in that miserable Spiritualism, so he could 
send word back to the folks. 

The Proceedings of the Psychical Research Society have 
a twofold association with literature, for not only have 
various modern novels and stories been inspired by such 
material, but the instances recorded are similar in many 



202 Supernatural Life 

cases to the classical ghost stories. Lacy Collison-Moriey 
in his Greek and Roman Ghost Stories says, "There are a 
number of stories of the passing of souls which are cu- 
riously like some of those collected by the Psychical Re- 
search Society, in the Fourth Book of Gregory the Great's 
Dialogues J' The double source of many modem stories 
may be found by a comparative study of Collison-Morley's 
book and Myers's Human Personality, while G. H. Ger- 
otdd's volume. The Grateful Dead, introduces recent 
instances that are like classical stories. The inability of 
the soul to have rest in the other world if its body was 
unburied, as held by the ancients, is reflected in Gothic 
romance, Elizabethan drama as well as in the classics. 
The ghost of Jack, whom Peele tells us about, is a case of 
a ghost coming back to befriend his undertaker. From 
these comparisons it would appear that there is something 
inherently true to humanity in these beliefs, for the 
revenge ghost and the grateful dead have appeared all 
along the line. Perhaps human personality is largely the 
same in all lands and all times, and ghosts have the same 
elemental emotions however much they may have ac- 
quired a veneer of modernity. 

There are many instances of the compact-ghost, the 
spirit who returns just after death in accordance with a 
promise made in life, to manifest himself to some friend 
or to some skeptic. Algernon Blackwood gives several 
stories based on that theme, one a curious case where the 
ghost is so lifelike his friend does not dream he is not the 
living man, and assigns him to a bedroom. Later he is 
invisible, yet undoubtedly present, for his heavy breathing, 
movements of the covers, and impress on the bed are 
beyond dispute. Afterwards, by Fred C. Smale, shows a 
ghost returning to attend a neighborhood club. When his 
name is called by mistake, he takes part on the program, 
speaking through the lips of a young man present, who 



Supernatural Life 203 

goes off in a cataleptic trance. During this coma the 
3^outh, who is ignorant of music, gives a technical discussion 
of notation, analyzing diatonic semi- tones and discussing 
the note a nightingale trills on. When he wakes he says 
he has felt a chill and a touch. Alice Brown relates a 
story of a lover who promised to come to his sweetheart 
at the moment of death, but who, like Ahimeas in the 
Bible, runs before he is ready, and keeps his ghostly tryst 
while the rescuers bring him back to life. He hasn't 
really been drowned at all. 

A recent novelette by Frances Hodgson Burnett, called 
The White People, has psychical phenomena for its 
central interest. A little child, born after her father's 
tragic death and when her d3dng mother is conscious of his 
spiritual presence, grows up with a strange sensitiveness 
to manifestations from the other world. Her home is on a 
lonely estate in Scotland , so that her chief companionship 
is with the ''white people," the spirits of the dead, though 
she does not so recognize them. Her playmate is Wee 
Brown Elsbeth, who has been murdered hundreds of 
years before, and she is able to see the dead hover near 
their loved ones wherever she goes. So when she comes 
to realize what a strange vision is hers, she has no horror 
of death, and when her lover dies she does not grieve, but 
waits to see him stand smiling beside her as in life. The 
theme of the story is the nearness of the dead to the living, 
the thin texture of the veil that separates the two worlds. 

Basil King tells a poignant story of a soul tr^dng vainly 
to return in body to right a wrong done in life but unable 
to accomplish her purpose by physical means. At last 
she effects it by impressing the mind of a living woman 
who carries out the suggestion psychically given. One of 
the most effective recent accounts of a spirit's return to 
earth to influence the life of the living, to give messages or 
to control destiny, is in Ellen Glasgow's The Shadowy 



204 Supernatural Life 

Third. Here the ghost of a child, a httle girl whom her 
stepfather has done to death for her money, returns to 
cause his death in an unusual way. She throws her little 
skipping-rope carelessly on the stairway where he must 
trip up in it when he sees her phantom figure in front of 
him in the gloom, so to fall headlong to his death. This is 
an impressive revenge ghost. 

Henry James based his ghost story. The Turn of the 
Screw, on an incident reported to the Psychical Society, 
of a spectral old woman corrupting the mind of a child. 
The central character in Arnold Bennett's novel, The 
Ghost, is a specter, one of the most rabid revenge ghosts 
in literature, who is eaten up with jealousy lest the woman 
he loved in life shall care for some one else. Algernon 
Blackwood uses much psychical material in his number- 
less stories of the supernatural, often mentioning the 
work of the Society, and Andrew Lang has contributed 
much to the subject. Arthur Machen has just published 
a collection of stories of war- apparitions that are interest- 
ing psychical specimens, called The Bowmen. In one 
story in the volume he shows us how a contemporary 
legend may be built up, since from a short piece of fiction 
written by him has evolved the mass of material relating 
to the angels at Mons. One tale is a story of the super- 
natural intervention of Saint George and his army to 
drive back the Germans and save the hour for the Allies, 
while another describes the vision of a soldier wounded in 
battle defending his comrades, who sees the long-dead 
heroes of England file past him to praise him for his valor. 
The minister gives him wine to drink and 

His voice was hushed. For as he looked at the minister 
the fashion of his vesture was changed. He was all in armor, 
if armor be made of starlight, of the rose of dawn, and of sunset 
fires ; and he lifted up a great sword of flame. 



Supernatural Life 205 

"Full in the midst, his Cross of Red 
Triumphant Michael brandished 
And trampled the Apostate's pride." 

Another case of collective apparitions is the experience 
of a soldier, wounded in battle, who tells of strange 
fighters who have come in to aid the English. He thinks 
they are some of the tribesmen that Britain employs, 
but from his descriptions the minister knows that they 
are the long-dead Greeks who have arisen to take part in 
the struggle which their modern descendants are reluctant 
to share. These stories are only a few among the many 
instances of supernaturalism in fiction traceable to the 
influence of the war. 

Certain volumes of ghost stories have appeared, claim- 
ing to be not fiction but fact, accounts of actual appari- 
tions seen and snap-shotted. This sort of problematic fic- 
tion is not new, however, since Defoe long ago published 
one of the best of the kind, the story of Mrs. Veal, who 
appeared to her friend Mrs. Bargrave, and conversed with 
her, gravely telling her that heaven is much like the de- 
scriptions in a certain religious book written shortly before 
that. She seems very realistic, with her dress of newly 
scoured silk, which her friend rubs between her fingers, 
and her lifelike conversation. This story has usually been 
regarded as one of Defoe's "lies like truth," but recent 
evidence leads one to believe that it is a reportorial account 
of a ghost story current at the time, which missed being 
reported to the Society for Psychical Research merely 
because the organization did not exist then. The modern 
stories that stridently claim to be real lack the interest 
in many instances that Mrs. Veal is able to impart, and 
in most cases the reader loses his taste for that sort of 
fiction because it is rammed down his throat for fact. 
They don't impress one, either as fact or as fiction. 



2o6 Supernatural Life 

One of the most interesting aspects of the literature 
relating to psychic matters in recent years is the number 
of books that claim to be spirit-inspired. These instances 
of psychography are not what we might expect mimortals 
to indite, but it appears that there must be a marked 
decrease of intelligence when one reaches the other world. 
The messages sent back by dead genius lack the master 
style, even lacking that control over spelling and grammar 
which low, earth-bound editors consider necessary. But 
perhaps the spirits of the great grow tired of being made 
messenger boys, and show their resentment by literary 
strikes. Anita Silvani has published several volumes that 
she claims were written while she was in a semi-trance, — 
which statement no reader will doubt. Her accommodat- 
ing dictator furnishes illustrations for her stuff, as well, 
for she says she would have inner visions of the scenes 
described, "as if a dioram passed" before her. These 
romances of three worlds are quite peculiar productions. 
The inner voices asked her in advance not to read any 
literature on theosophy or Spiritualism or the super- 
natural since they wished her mind to be free from any 
previous bias. Mrs. Elsa Barker is another of these 
literary mediums, for she has put out two volumes of 
letters in narrative form, which she makes affidavit were 
dictated to her by a disembodied spirit, the ghost of the 
late Judge Hatch, of California. She states that while she 
was sitting in her room in Paris one day, her hand was 
violently seized, a pencil thrust into it, and the automatic 
writing began. Mrs. Campbell-Praed is another of these 
feminine stenographers for spooks, but like the rest she 
has left nothing that could well be included in a literary 
anthology. These spirit- writers tell us of life after death, 
but nothing that is a contribution to existing ignorance 
on the subject. According to Judge Hatch, whose post- 
mortem pen-name is X, the present war has its parallel 



Supernatural Life 207 

in a conflict of spirits, and the astral world is in dire 
confusion because of overcrowding, so that the souls of 
the slain must go through torments and struggle with 
demons. 

The most recent instance of psychography comes to us 
by way of the ouija-board from St. Louis, the authenticity 
of which is vouched for by Mr. Casper Yost, of the editor- 
ial staff of the Globe-Democrat. But if the ouija-board 
dictated the stories and plays, giving the name of Patience 
Worth as the spirit author, and if Mrs. Curran took them 
down, why does Mr. Yost appear as the author ' Patience 
Worth says that she lived a long time ago. Mr. Yost 
insists that her language is Elizabethan, but it seems 
rather a curious conglomeration, unlike an}- Elizabethan 
style I am familiar with. She has written stories, lyrics, 
a long drama, and other informal compositions, a mar- 
velous output when one considers the slow movements 
of the ouija-board. The communications seem to have 
human interest and a certain literar^^ value, though they 
bring us no messages from the Elizabethan section of 
eternity. ' 

Automatic writing appears in The Martian by Du Maur- 
ier, where the spirit from Mars causes Bart}^ Joscelyn in 
his sleep to write books impossible to him in his waking 
hours. The type has been parodied by John Kendrick 
Bangs in his Enclianted Typewriter, which machine worked 
industriously recording telegraphic despatches from across 

^ Other examples of the books that claim to be inspired by spirits are: 
An Angel Message, Being a Series of Angelic and Holy Communications 
Received by a Lady; Xyruj, by Mrs. Campbell- Praed ; Letters from a Living 
Dead Man, by Elsa Barker, and War Letters from a Liinng Dead Man; 
Stranger than Fiction, by Mar\' L. Lewis; The Soul of the Moor, by Straford 
Jolly, Ida Lymond and Her Hour of Vision, by Hope Cra^^-fo^d; The Life 
Elysian; The Car of Phoebus; The Heretic; An Astral Bridegroom; Through 
the Mists, The Vagrom Spirit, and Leaves from the A utobiography of a 
Soul in Paradise, by Robert James Lee. This last-named gentleman seems 
to be in touch with spirits as rapid in composition as Robert W. Chambers. 



2o8 Supernatural Life 

the Styx. The invisible operator gives his name as Jim 
Boswell. The writer states : 

The substance of the following pages has evolved itself 
between the hours of midnight and four o'clock, during a 
period of six months, from a type- writing machine standing 
in a comer of my library, manipulated by unseen hands. 

It is astonishing how many ghosts are trying to break 
into print these days. And after all, what do the poor 
things get out of it? No royalties, scant praise, and much 
ridicule when their style fails to come up to specifications. 

Interesting psychical material is found in a new volume 
of plays by Theodore Dreiser.' He gives curious twists 
to the unearthly, as in The Blue Sphere, where a shadow 
and a fast mail are among the dramatis personcF-, typifying 
the fate idea of the old drama. The shadow lures a child 
monstrosity out on to the railway track, after he has 
caused the elders to leave the gate open, and the train, 
made very human, kills the child. The psychic effects 
in In the Dark are even more peculiar, the characters 
including various spirits, a wraith, and a ghost with red 
eyes, who circle round the human beings and force them 
to discover a murder that has been committed. The 
effect of supernatural manifestation on animals is brought 
out here, in the bellowing of the bull and the howling of 
the dogs as the ghosts pass by. In A Spring Recital troops 
of nymphs and hamadryads, fauns, clouds of loathsome 
spirits of hags and wastrels, ''persistences" of fish, birds, 
and animals, "various living and newly dead spirits 
wandering in from the street," the ghost of an English 
minister of St. Giles, who died in 1631, a monk of the 
Thebaid, of date 300 and three priests of Isis of 2840 
B.C. enter to hear the organist play. He is unaware that 
anybody is hearing his music save the four human beings 

* Plays of the Natural and the Supernatural. 



Supernatural Life 209 

who have happened in. These dramas of course are purely 
Hterary plays, impossible of presentation on the stage, 
and in their curious character show a likeness to some of 
the late German supernaturalism, such as the plays of 
August Stramm. They wshow in an extreme form the 
tendency toward psychic material that the American and 
English drama has evidenced lately. 

Life after Death. Mankind is immensely interested in 
heaven and hell, though he knows but little concerning 
these places. But man is a born traveler and gives much 
thought to distant countries, whether he definitely expects 
to go there or not. This interest is no new thing, for 
classical mythology is full of doleful accounts of the after 
life. The early English stage represented heaven and 
hell in addition to the earth, and Elizabethan drama 
shows many references to the underworld, with a strong 
Senecan influence. There are especially frequent allusions 
to certain famous sufferers in Hades, as Ixion, Tantalus, 
Sisyphus, and Tityus. Modern English fiction has like- 
wise been infiuenced by the epic supernaturalism, reflect- 
ing the heaven and hell of Dante and Milton. Yet 
as in his own thinking each person lays out a Celestial 
City for himself and pictures his own inferno to fit his 
ideas of mercy and justice, peopling them with appropriate 
beings, changing and coloring the conceptions of Bunyan, 
for instance, to suit his own desires, so it is in fiction. 
Some think of heaven and hell as definite places, while to 
others they are states of mind. To some the devil is as 
real as in the darkey folk-song, where, 

"Up stepped de debbil 
Wid his iron wooden shubbil, 
Tearin' up de yearth wid his big-toe nail!" 

while to others he is an iconoclastic new thought. Heaven 
and hell have been treated in every conceivable way in 

14 



210 Supernatural Life 

English fiction — conventionally, symbolically, humorously, 
and satirically, so that one may choose the type he prefers. 
There are enough kinds to go around. 

Among the portrayers of the traditional heaven and 
hell Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward is prominent. 
Her works on contemporary immortality are said to have 
had a tremendous vogue in the period following the Civil 
War, when death had claimed so many that the living 
were thinking of the other world more than of this. Her 
pictures of heaven in Gates Ajar are comforting, for she 
assures to each person his own dearest wish in fulfillment, 
to the ambitious youth his books, to the young girl her 
piano, and to the small child her ginger-snaps instead of 
earthly bread and butter. In The Gates Between the 
physician, suddenly killed, finds himself embarrassed by 
immortality. He doesn't know how to adjust himself to 
eternity and at first brings many of earth's problems with 
him. In the third of the series, The Gates Beyond, she 
describes a very material yet spiritual heaven. Bodies 
are much like those on earth, not vaporous projections; 
there are museums, hospitals, universities, telephones, 
concerts and all up-to-date improvements and conven- 
iences. The dead woman discovers that she remembers 
what she read on earth, takes pleasure in simple things 
such as the smell of mignonette, hears the birds sing a 
Te Deum, while a brook and a bird sing a duet, and the 
leaves are also vocal. There is a Universal Language 
which must be learned by each soul, and heaven holds 
all sorts of occupations, material, mental, and spiritual. 
She says that near earth are many earth-bound spirits 
occupied in low and coarse and selfish ways, who 
lack "spiritual momentum to get away." "They 
loved nothing, lived for nothing, believed in no- 
thing, they cultivated themselves for nothing but the 
earth," — which may be compared with the state 



Supernatural Life 211 

of the souls on Fifth Avenue, described by Granville 
Barker. 

Mrs. Ward's pictures of heaven may seem sentimental 
and conventional to us to-day, yet to be appreciated they 
must be considered in relation to the religious thought of 
her time. She represented a reaction against the rigid 
theology, the stem concepts of an older generation than 
her own, and she wished to make heaven more homelike. 
She did have an influence in her day, as may be illus- 
trated by a remark from a sermon recently delivered by 
a New York pastor, that the reading of her books had 
exerted a great influence over him, that they made heaven 
over for him. 

Mrs. Oliphant is another of the conductors of fictive 
Cook's tours through heaven and hell, after the fashion 
started by Dante and Milton, and modernized by Mrs. 
Ward. She devotes volumes to describing the future 
worlds in their relation to mortal destiny. One stor\'' 
tells of a soul that comes back from purgatory- to be 
comforted by the old minister and sent away happy; 
another^ is the account of a spirit returning from heaven 
to right a wrong that her husband is doing another. Still 
another^ gives the experiences of a woman who is dis- 
tressed when she finds herself in heaven, because she has 
hidden her will and her young niece is thereby left penni- 
less, but she asks advice of various celestial authorities 
and finally succeeds in returning to earth and righting 
matters. A Beleaguered City is a peculiar story of a 
French town besieged by the dead, who drive out the 
inhabitants because of their cruelty toward some nuns. 
A strange gloom perv^ades the place, the cathedral bells 
ring of themselves, and flaming signs appear on the church 
doors, till after much penance the citizens are allowed to 
return and the invading hosts from eternity withdraw. 

» The Open Door. ' The Portrait. i Old Lady Mary. 



212 Supernatural Life 

In one story, ^ Mrs. Oliphant gives her ideas of heaven, as 
a place of light, of rest, of joy, of service, where the great 
angel Pain helps the souls to wisdom. In a counter- 
picture,^ she shows hell, the world of the unhappy dead, 
where are cruelty, selfishness, suffering, a world filled 
with tears that drip from earth. Yet it is a hell as well- 
regulated, as thoroughly disciplined as a German mu- 
nicipality, with various punishments, — the most terrible 
being a lecture platform from which are delivered eternal 
addresses. 

These would-be-realistic stories of heaven and hell 
somehow leave the reader cold, after Dante and Milton, 
however much one may feel the sincerity of the authors. 
Heaven and hell are such vast provinces that one cannot 
chart them in imagination sufficiently to grasp somebody 
else's concept in story. 

Other stories of lite after death, given from the spirit- 
angle rather than from the mortal point of view as in 
most ghost stories, are among the recent types of super- 
naturalism. Alice Brown has several stories of the kind, 
in one showing a woman who comes to tell her friend not 
to be afraid of dying, because There is much like Here, 
and another symbolic of the power of love to come back 
even from the pit of blackness after death. Olivia Howard 
Dunbar's The Shell of Sense gives the psychosis of a 
woman who cannot go to heaven because she is jealous of 
her husband. She sees the form of the wind, hears the 
roses open in the garden, and senses many things un- 
known to human beings, yet is actuated by very human 
motives. Katherine Butler^ suggests that death must be a 
painless process and the after life much like mortality, 
since the man doesn't realize that he is dead but attempts 
to go about his affairs as usual. 

* The Little Pilgrim in the Unseen. ^ The Land of Darkness. 

3 In In No Strange Land. 



Supernatural Life 213 

The symbolic treatment of the theme of life after 
death is more effective and shows more literary art than 
the conventional pictures of Mrs. Ward's and Mrs. 
Oliphant's. No human vocabulary is able to describe 
immortality of glory or despair, hence it is more effective 
merely to suggest the thought by allegory or symbolism. 
Hawthorne gives us a symbolic morality in The Celestial 
Railroad, where he pictures the road between heaven 
and hell, drawing on Bunyan's imagery to describe the 
landscape and characters. Apollyon is engineer and 
emits realistic blasts of smoke. Eugene Field' tells of a 
mother just entering heaven who asks an angel where 
she may find her little baby, dead long ago, to whom the 
angel whispers that she is the babe, grown to maturity 
in Paradise. Julian Hawthorne's Lovers in Heaven is a 
symbolic picture of the after life, where a man just dead 
goes in search of the beloved he lOvSt long before. He sees 
her on the far slope of a heavenly hill, but before he can 
reach her the devil appears to him in his own double, 
' ' the Satan of mine own self, the part of me wherein God 
had no share." This is a quite modern concept of 
diabolism. But love struggles to save him, and he resists 
his evil self. 

Ahrinziman, by Anita Silvani, shows lurid pictures of 
the world to come. In the Inferno of the Dark Star the 
soul sees the attendant genii of his life, each symbolizing 
some passion of his nature. There are horrible astral 
birds and beasts and combinations unknown to mortal 
biology, while vultures hover overhead and a foul astral 
odor fills the air. The spirits are of peculiar substance, 
for they fight and slay each other, some being torn to 
pieces. The soul is supposed to progress toward the Silver 
and later the Golden Star. Marie Corelli's Romance of 
Two Worlds is a queer production, preaching the doctrine 

^ In The Mother in Paradise. 



214 Supernatural Life 

of psychical electricity, which is to be a sort of wonder- 
working magician, and in other novels she gives theories of 
radio-activity, a theosophical cure-all for this world and 
the next. 

A Vision of Judgment, by H. G. Wells, is a satire on 
man's judgment of sin and character and of destiny after 
death, showing the pettiness and folly of Ahab, proud of 
his sins, and the hyprocrisy of a so-called saint, con- 
ceited over his self-torture. "At last the two sat side by 
side, stark of all illusions, in the shadow of the robe of 
God's charity, like brothers." The picture of God and 
the throne vanish and they behold a land austere and 
beautiful, with the enlightened souls of men in clean 
bodies all about him. This symbolic allegory setting 
forth the shallowness of human judgment as set against 
God's clarity of vision and charity of wisdom is like Oscar 
Wilde's The House of Judgment, a terrible piece of sym- 
bolism expressed in a few words. A soul who has been 
altogether evil comes at last before God to be judged. 
God speaks to him of his vileness, his cruelty, his selfish- 
ness, to all of which the soul makes confession of guilt. 

And God, closing the book of the man's Life, said, "Surely 
I will send thee into Hell. Even unto Hell will I send 
thee." 

And the man cried out, "Thou canst not!" 

And God said to the man, "Wherefore can I not send thee 
to Hell, and for what reason?" 

"Because in Hell I have always lived," answered the man. 

And there was silence in the house of judgment. 

And after a space God spake and said to the man, "Seeing 
that I may not send thee into Hell, I will send thee into 
Heaven. Surely unto Heaven I will send thee." 

And the man cried out, "Thou canst not!" 

And God said to the man, "Wherefore can I not send thee 
unto Heaven, and tor what reason?" 



Supernatural Life 215 

"Because, never, and in no place, have I been able to 
imagine it ! " answered the man. 

And there was silence in the house of judgment. 



The fact that a man's thoughts make his heaven or his 
hell is brought out in a recent book, The Case of John 
Smith, by Elizabeth Bisland, where the central character 
receives a revelation w^hile working at his typewriter one 
day. The message says, "Oh, Peevish and Perv^erse! 
How know you that you have not died elsew^here and that 
this is not the Heaven which there you dreamed? How 
know you that your Hell may not lie only in not re- 
cognizing this as Heaven?" 

In many recent examples of allegory and symbolism w^e 
get suggestive impressions of the other life, of the soul's 
realities. Some of these have the inevitable words, 
the fatal phrases that seem to penetrate into the real 
heaven and hell for us. The most remarkable instance 
of symbolic treatment of the after-life is in Souls on Fifth, 
by Granville Barker, where the spirits of the dead are 
represented as unable to rise above the level of the ideals 
they had held in life, and drift endlessly up and down the 
Avenue, some in the form of tarnished gilt, some w4th 
white plague spots of cow^ardice, or blisters of slanderous 
thoughts, some horny with selfishness, some with lines of 
secret cruelty. There are few squares but mostly irregular 
shapes of sin. 

The purely humorous treatment of life after death, the 
comic pictures of heaven and hell, are of a piece wdth the 
humorous treatment of other phases of supematuralism, 
and are distinctly modem. The flippant way in w^hich 
sacred subjects are handled is a far cry from the heaven 
and hell of Dante and Milton. Modem writers slap the 
devil on the back, make fun of the archangels and appeal 
to the ridiculous in one-time sacred situations, with a 



2i6 Supernatural Life 

freedom that would have made the Puritans gasp. For 
instance, St. Peter has been the butt of so many jokes 
that he is really hackneyed. 

The Flying Dutchman, whom Brander Matthews 
introduces in his Primer of Imaginary Geography, and 
who says that the Wandering Jew is the only person he 
can have any satisfactory chats with now, speaks of 
knowing Charon, "who keeps the ferry across the Styx. 
I met him last month and he was very proud of his new 
electric launch with its storage batte^s^" He sa^^s that 
hell is now lighted by electricity and that Pluto has put 
in all the modern improvements. John Kendrick Bangs, 
in his House-boat on the Styx, brings together the shades 
of many illustrious persons; Queen Elizabeth, Walter 
Raleigh, Socrates, Xantippe, Captain Kidd, and many 
others. From them we get pictures of the hfe after death 
and of their characteristic attitudes toward it and each 
other. He continues the situation in The Pursuit of the 
House-boat, as the redoubtable Captain Kidd makes off 
with the ship and the ladies, leaving all the men behind. 
But they follow the bold buccaneer and after exciting 
adventures reaching from the Styx to Paris, they recap- 
ture the fair. Carolyn Wells has recently given us a 
Styx River Anthology. In modern stories we visit the 
comic devil on his native heath, see him in his own home 
town, as in previous chapters we discussed him in his 
appearances on earth. Kipling's The Last of the Stories 
shows us the Hades of literary endeavor, the limbo of lost 
characters, presided over by a large and luminous devil 
of fluent tongue. Kipling recognizes many persons from 
fiction, and sees various tortures in process. All do 
obeisance to the shade of Rabelais, the Master. KipHng 
is terrified by the characters he himself has brought into 
being and begs to hide his face from them. F. Marion 
Crawford gives us another glimpse of literary eter- 



Supernatural Life 217 

nity, ' where the spirits of learned personages meet and 
discuss life. A recent poem describes a meeting and dia- 
logue in Hades between Chaucer and Cressida. 

It is possibly Bernard Shaw who would be most liable 
to prosecution by the devil for lese-majeste, for in Man 
and Superman, Mine Host of the Pit is represented as an 
affable gentleman who tries to make hell attractive to 
his guests, and exercises not the least constraint on their 
movements. They are free to leave him and go to heaven 
if they like, — he only warns them that they will find it 
tiresome. He converses with Don Juan and a couple of 
other blase mortals, uttering Shavian iconoclasms with an 
air of courteous boredom. He is very different from the 
sinister personage of conventional fiction. 

Mark Twain has given humorous views of heaven' in his 
Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven. A bluff, 
hearty old salt finds the celestial regions very different 
from the traditional descriptions of them. The heavenly 
citizens are a polite set, wishful for him to do what he 
likes, yet he tires of the things he thought paradise 
consisted of, lays aside his harp and crown, and takes his 
wings off for greater ease. He finds his pleasures in the 
meeting of an occasional patriarch, or prophet, and the 
excitement of the entry of a converted bartender from 
Jersey City. He changes his views on many points, saying 
for instance, ''I begin to see a man's got to be in his own 
heaven to be happy," and again, ''Happiness ain't a 
thing in itself, — it's only a contrast with something that 
ain't pleasant." Again Sandy, his friend, sa^^s, "I wish 
there was something in that miserable Spiritualism so we 
could send the folks word about it." 

Something of the same combination of humor and 
earnestness is found in Nicholas Vachell Lindsay's poem, 
General William Booth Enters into Heaven. 

' In Among the Immortals. 



2i8 Supernatural Life 

"Booth led boldly with his big bass drum, 
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? 
The saints smiled gravely as they said, 'He's come.' 
A re you washed in the blood of the Lamb ? 

(Bass drums) 
Walking lepers followed, rank on rank, 
Lurching bravos from the ditches dank. 
Drabs from the alley-ways and drug-fiends pale 
Minds still passion-ridden, soul-power frail! 
Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy breath. 
Unwashed legions with the ways of death, — 
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb ? 

(Reverently sung — no instrimients) 
And while Booth halted by the curb for prayer 
He saw his Master through the flag-filled air. 
Christ came gently with a robe and crown 
For Booth the soldier, while the crowd knelt down. 
He saw King Jesus — they were face to face — 
And he knelt a-weeping in that holy place. 
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb ?" 

This combination of realism with idealism, of homely 
details with celestial symbolism, is also seen in another 
recent poem, The Man with the Pigeons, by William Rose 
Benet, who show^s us two pictures, the first of a tramp in 
Madison Square Garden, who loves the pigeons and has 
them ever clustering around him in devotion. The next 
is of heaven, with the celestial gardens, where among the 
goldhaired angels the old tramp stands at home, still 
wearing his rusty shoes and battered derby hat. The 
quaint commingling of fancy and fact reminds us of 
Hannele's dreams of heaven, in Hauptmann's Hannele, 
where the schoolmaster is confused with the angels, and 
heaven and the sordid little room are somehow united. 

H. G. Wells, in A Wonderful Visit shows us another 
side of the picture, for he draws an angel down and lets 



Supernatural Life 219 

him tell the citizens of the earth of the land he comes from. 
I make no attempt in this discussion to decide concerning 
the personality of angels, whether they are the spirits 
of the just made perfect or pre- Adamite creatures that 
never were and never could be man. For the present 
purpose, they are simply angels. This book of Wells's 
is an example of the satiric treatment of heaven and earth 
that constitutes a special point of importance in the 
modern supernaturalism. It is a social satire, and a 
burlesque on the formal and insincere manifestations of 
religion. A vicar takes a pot shot at what he supposes is a 
rare bird, seeing a rainbow flash in the sky, — but instead, 
an angel comes tumbling down with a broken wing. This 
thrusts him upon the vicar as a guest for some time, and 
introduces complications in the village life. The parish- 
ioners do not believe in angels save in stained glass win- 
dows or in church on Sunday, and they make life difficult 
for the vicar and his guest. The angel shows a human 
sense of humor, that quaint philosophy of the incongruous 
which is the basis of all true humor, and his naive com- 
ments on earthly conventions, his smiling wonder at the 
popular misconceptions in regard to his heaven — to which 
he is surprised to learn that mortals are thought to go, 
since he says he has never seen any there — make him a 
lovable character. But village custom compels him to 
fold his shining wings under a coat till he looks like a 
hunch-back, put boots on so that he "has hoofs like a 
hippogrif," as he plaintively says to the vicar, and he finds 
conformity to convention a painful process. The novel 
ends sadly, symbolizing the world's stupid harshness, for 
the angel is sent away from the village as unworthy to 
live among the people, and his heart is almost broken. 

The same type of humor and satire may be found 
in James Stephens's The Demi-Gods, and in Anatole 
France's, The Revolt of the Angels. Stephens's novel 



220 Supernatural Life 

contains an insert of a short story of heaven pre- 
viously published, which depicts a preliminary skir- 
mish in heaven over a coin a corpse has had left in his 
hand and has taken to eternity with him. In each novel 
several angels come tumbling down from heaven and take 
up earthly life as they find it, engaging in affairs not 
considered angelic. Stephens, in addition to the two 
fighting celestials, gives us an archangel, a seraph, and a 
cherub. There is in both stories a certain embarrassment 
over clothes, the fallen ones arriving in a state of nudity. 
The necessity for donning earthly garments, the removal 
of the wings, and the adaptation to human life furnish 
complication and interest, with the added feminine 
element, though Stephens's novel is not marred by the 
unclean imaginings of Anatole France. 

The revolters in the French novel take up Parisian life, 
while Stephens's angelic trio join an itinerant tinker and 
his daughter who are journeying aimlessly about, accom- 
panied by a cart and a sad-eyed philosopher, an ass. 
They engage in activities and joys not conventionally 
archangelic, such as smoking corn-cob pipes, eating cold 
potatoes, and, when necessary, stealing the potatoes. The 
contrasts between heavenly ideas and Irish tramp life are 
inimitable. At last when the three, having decided to go 
back to heaven, don their wings and crowns and say 
good-bye, the cherub turns back for one more word of 
farewell with Mary. Seeing her tears over his going, he 
tears his shining wings to shreds and casts them from him, 
electing to stay on earth with the tinker's cart, for the 
sake of love. It is really quite a demi-god-like thing to do. 

UnUke France's book, which is a blasting satire on 
religion, these two English novels are amusing, with a 
certain measure of satire, yet with a whimsicality that 
does not antagonize. France's angels remain on earth 
and become more corrupt than men, and Wells's wonderful 



Supernatural Life 221 

visitor is banished from the village as an undesirable 
alien. Stephens's archangel and seraph go back to heaven 
after their vacation, while the cherub turns his back on 
mmortal glory rather than break a woman's heart. In 
all three of these books we notice the same leveling 
tendency shown in characterization of the angels that we 
have observed heretofore in the case of ghosts and devils, 
werewolves, and witches. The angels are human, with 
charming personality and a piquant sense of humor, 
whose attempts to understand mortal conventions reveal 
the essential absurdity of earthly ideas in many instances. 
The three taken together constitute an interesting case of 
literary parallelism and it would be gratifying to discover 
whether France was influenced by Wells and Stephens, or 
Stephens by Wells and France, — but in any event Wells 
can prove a clear alibi as to imitation, since his novel 
appeared a number of years before the others. The 
possible inspiration for all of these in Byron's Heaven 
and Earth suggests an interesting investigation. A more 
recent story. The Ticket-of -Leave Angel, brings an angel 
down to a New York apartment, where he has peculiar 
experiences and illustrates a new type of angelic 
psychology. The tendency to satirize immortality has 
crept even into poetry, for in a recent volume by Rupert 
Brooke there are several satiric studies. One, entitled 
On Certain Proceedings of the Psychical Research Society, 
ridicules the idea that spirits would return to earth to 
deliver the trivial messages attributed to them, and 
another. Heaven, is a vitriolic thrust at the hope of a 
better life after death, sneering at it with unpleasant 
imagery. 

One of the recent instances of satiric pictures of the 
hereafter is Lord Dunsany's The Glittering Gate, a one- 
act drama, where Bill and Jim, two burglars, crack the 
gate of heaven to get in. Sardonic laughter sounds while 



222 Supernatural Life 

they are engaged in the effort to effect an entrance, and 
wondering what heaven will be like. Bill thinks that his 
mother will be there. 

"I don't know if they want a good mother in there who 
would be kind to the angels and sit and smile at them when they 
sing, and soothe them if they were cross. (Suddenly) Jim, 
they won't have brought me up against her, will they ? " 

Jim: "It would be just like them to. Very like them." 

When the glittering gate of heaven swings open and the 
two toughs enter eagerly, they find nothing— absolutely 
nothing but empty space, and the sardonic laughter 
sounds in their ears. Bill cries out, *' It is just like them! 
Very like them"! 

Was not this suggested by Rupert Brooke's poem, 
Failure? 

In the stories treating satirically or humorously of the 
future life we find the purpose in reality to be to image this 
life by illustration of the other. Eternity is described in 
order that we may understand time a little better. Angels 
and devils are made like men, to show mortal poten- 
tialities either way. The absurdities of mankind are 
illustrated as seen by angel e3'es, the follies as satirized 
by devils. The tendency now is to treat supernatural 
life humorously, satirically or symbolically, rather than 
with the conventional methods of the past. Common- 
place treatment of great subjects is liable to be unsatis- 
factory, and any serious treatment, other than symbolically 
simple, of heaven or hell seems flat after Dante and 
Milton. 

In considering these various types of stories dealing 
with supernatural life, whether continued beyond the 
mortal span on earth, renewed by reincarnation, or taken 
up in another world after death, we find that several 
facts seem to appear with reference to the type chosen for 



Supernatural Life 223 

treatment by men as distinct from women, and vice 
versa. So far as my search has gone, I have found no 
instance in EngUsh Hterature where a woman has used 
either the motif of the Wandering Jew or the Elixir of 
Life. I do not say that no such instances exist, but I have 
not found them. Carmen Sylva is the only woman I 
know of at all who has taken up the characterization of 
the Wandering Jew. On the other hand, women write 
often of heaven, most of the stories of conventional ideas 
of heaven being by women. Where men have pictured 
heaven or hell they have done it for the most part humor- 
ously, satirically or symbolically. They seem to curve 
round the subject rather than to approach it directly. 
Yet where it is a question of continuing life here in this 
world, by means of an elixir or other method, or as an 
ever-living being like the Jew, men have used the theme 
frequently. Since fiction does reflect our thought-life 
and our individual as well as racial preferences, the con- 
clusions that might be drawn, if one were sure of their 
basis, would be interesting. Can it be that men are more 
deeply interested in this life on earth and cling to it in 
thought more tenaciously than women, and that women 
are more truly citizens of the other world? Are men 
skeptical of the existence of any but a satiric or symbolic 
heaven, or merely doubtful of reaching there? 



CHAPTER VI 
TKe S-upernatural in FolK-Tales 

THE folk-tale is one of the new fashions in fiction. 
True, folk-lore has long constituted an important 
element of Hterature, constantly recurring in poetry , 
particularly in the ballad, in the drama, the novel, and 
short story. Yet it has been in solution. It has not been 
thought important enough to merit consideration for its 
own sake, but has been rather apologized for, covered up 
with other materials, so that its presence is scarcely 
recognized. Now, however, as Professor Kittredge says, 
folk-lore is no longer on the defensive, which fact is evi- 
dent in fiction as elsewhere. Scholars of our day are 
eagerly hunting down the various forms of folk-lore to 
preserv^e them in literature before they vanish com- 
pletely, and learned societies are recording with care the 
myths and legends and superstitions of peasants. Many 
volumes have appeared giving in literary form the fictions 
of various races and tribes, and comparative folk-lore 
is found to be an engrossing science. 

The supernatural forms a large element of folk-literature. 
The traditions and stories that come down to us from the 
childhood of any race are like the stories that children 
deHght in, tales of the marvelous, of the impossible, of 
magic and wonder. Folk-literature recks little of realism. 
It revels in the romantic, the mystic. Tales of gods and 
demi-gods, of giants and demons, of fairy-folk, of animals 

224 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 225 

endowed with human powers of speech and cunning, of 
supernatural flora as well as fauna, of ghosts, devils, of 
saints, and miracles, are the frame- work of such fiction. 
English literature is especially rich in these collections, 
for not only are the sections of English-speaking countries 
themselves fortunate fields for supernatural folk-tales, 
but the English, being a race of colonizers, have gone 
far in many lands and from the distant corners of the 
earth have written down the legends of many tribes and 
nations. This discussion does not take into consideration 
primarily folk-tales translated from other languages, but 
deals only with those appearing in English, though, of 
course, in many cases, they are transcripts from the spoken 
dialects of other people. But it is for their appearance 
as English fiction, not for their value as folk-lore, that 
they are taken up here. 

Wherever in fiction the life of the peasant class is 
definitely treated, there is likely to be found a good deal of 
folk-lore in the form of superstitions, taboos, racial 
traditions of the supernatural. This is present to a 
marked degree in the stories of Sir Walter Scott, and in 
fact one might write a volume on the supernatural in 
Scott's work alone. For example, we have Oriental 
magic and wonder,^ supernatural vision,^ superhuman 
foreknowledge, 3 unearthly '* stirs," ^ the White Lady of 
Avenel, ^ the bahrgeist, ^ besides his use of diabolism, witch- 
craft, and so forth already discussed. Thomas Hardy's 
work, relating as it does almost wholly to rustic life, is rich 
in superstitions and traditions of the peasants. The 
Withered Arm gives a gruesome account of a woman's 
attempt to cure her affliction by touching her arm to the 
corpse of a man who has been hanged, the complicating 

^ In The Talisman. ^ In My A unt Margaret's Mirror. 

3 In The Two Drovers. < In Woodstock. 

5 In The Monastery. ^ In The Betrothed. 

IS 



226 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

horror being furnished by the fact that the youth is her 
husband's secret son. He gives a story ^ of a super- 
natural coach that heralds certain events in the family 
life, charms for securing love as for making refractory 
butter come when the churn is bewitched, and so 
forth. Similar elements occur in others of his novels 
and stories. Eden Phillpotts' fiction^ shows a large ad- 
mixture of the folk-supernaturalism of the Dartmoor 
peasants, as do Lorna Doone, Wuthering Heights and 
numberless other novels and stories of other sections. 
There are guild superstitions reflected in the work of 
various writers of the sea, as in W. W. Jacobs' stories, 
for instance, tales of mining life, and so on. 

American fiction is equally rich in such material. 
Stories of the South, showing life in contact with the 
negroes, reveal it to a marked degree, as in the work 
of Thomas Nelson Page, Joel Chandler Harris, Ruth 
McEnery Stuart, Will Allen Dromgoole, and others. The 
Creole sense of the supernatural appears in George W. 
Cable's novels and stories, the mountain superstitions 
in those of John Fox, Jr., and Charles Egbert Craddock, 
those of New England in Mary Wilkins Freeman, Alice 
Brown, and their followers, the Indian traditions in Helen 
Hunt Jackson, J. Fenimore Cooper, the Dutch super- 
naturalism in Washington Irving, who also gives us the 
legendry of Spain in his tales of the Alhambra. Thomas 
A. Janvier has recreated antique Mexico for us in his 
stories of ghosts and saints, of devils and miracles. 

In most fiction that represents truly the life of simple 
people there will be found a certain amount of superstition 
which is inherent in practically every soul. There is no 
one of us but has his ideas of fate, of luck, of taboo. We 
are so used to these elements in life that we scarcely pay 
heed to them in fiction, yet a brief glance at books will 

' In Tess. ' Children of the Mist, The Witch, and others. 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 227 

recall their frequent appearance. They color poetry to a 
marked degree. In fact, without the sense of the mar- 
velous, the unreal, the wonderful, the magical, what would 
poetry mean to us? So we should feel a keen loss in our 
fiction if all the vague elements of the supernatural were 
effaced. Absolute realism is the last thing we desire. 

Now the folk- tale, told frankly as such, with no apology 
for its unreality, no attempt to make of it merely an 
allegory or vehicle for teaching moral truth, has taken its 
place in our literature. The science of ethnology has 
brought a wider interest in the oral heritage of the past, 
linking it to our life of the present. And the multiplica- 
tion of volumes recording stories of symbolic phenomena 
of nature, of gods, demi-gods, and heroes, of supernormal 
animals and plants, of fairies, banshees, bogles, giants, 
saints, miracles, and what-not make it possible to compare 
the widely disseminated stories, the variants and con- 
trasting types of folk-supematuralism. But my purpose 
in this discussion is to show the presence of the folk- 
supematuralism in literature, in prose fiction particularly. 
There is no science more fascinating than comparative 
folk-lore and no language affords so many original examples 
of oral literature as the English. As we study its in- 
fluence on fiction and poetry, we feel the truth of what 
Tylor says ' : 

Little by little, in what seems the most spontaneous fiction, 
a more comprehensive study of the sources of poetr}- and 
romance begins to disclose a cause for each fancy, a story of 
inherited materials from which each province of the poet's 
land has been shaped and built over and peopled. 

The Celtic Revival, the renascence of wonder in Ireland, 
has done more than anything else to awaken modem 

» In Primitive Culture, vol. i., page 273. 



228 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

love for antiquity, to bring over into literature the legends 
of gods and men 

"Beyond the misty space 
Of twice a thousand years." 

While the movement concerns itself more with poetry 
and the drama than with prose, — Ireland has been likened 
to "a nest of singing birds," though the voices of some 
have been sadly silenced of late — yet fiction has felt its 
influence as well. The land of the immortals glooms and 
gleams again for us in storied vision, and the ancient past 
yields up to us its magic, its laughter, its tears. These 
romances are written, not in pedestrian prose as ordinary 
folk-tales, but with a bardic beauty that gives to style the 
lifting wings of verse. Each fact and figure is expressed 
in poetic symbols, which Yeats calls ''streams of passion 
poured about concrete forms." A sense of ancient, divine 
powers is in every bush and bog, every lake and valley. 
Ireland has enriched universal fancy and the effect on 
literature will perhaps never be lost. 

One of the most interesting aspects of folk-loristic 
supernaturalism is that concerned with nature. The 
primitive mind needs no scientific proof for theories of 
causation, since, given a belief in gods, it can manage the 
rest for itself. With the Celts there is ever a feeling of 
nature as a mighty personality. Every aspect, every 
phase of her power is endowed with life and temperament. 
Celtic pantheism saw in every form a spirit, in every spring 
or cloud or hill- top, in every bird or blossom some un- 
earthly divinity of being. A primrose is vastly more than 
a yellow primrose, but one of ''the dear golden folk"; 
the hawthorn is the barking of hounds, leek is the tear 
of a fair woman, and so on, which poetic speech bears a 
likeness to the Icelandic court poetry. This figurative 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 229 

sense suggests "an after-thought of the old nature- worship 
lingering yet about the fjords and glens where Druidism 
never was quite overcome by Christianity." It lends to 
the Celtic folk- tales their wild, unearthly beauty, their pas- 
sionate poetry and mystic symbolism akin to the classic 
mythology and such as we find in no other folk-literature 
of the present time. 

In the stories of Lady Gregory, John Synge, Yeats, 
Lady Wilde, and various other chroniclers of Celtic 
legendry, we find explanations of many phenomena, 
accounts of diverse occurrences. Lady Wilde ' (Speranza) 
tells of natural appearances, such as a great chasm which 
was opened to swallow a man who incurred the anger of 
God by challenging Him to combat for destroying his 
crops. A supernatural whirlwind caught up the blas- 
phemer and hurled him into the chasm that yawned to 
receive him. Many of the aspects of nature are at- 
tributed to the activities of giants, and later of demons ; as 
the piling up of cyclopean walls, massive breast-works of 
earth, or gigantic masses of rocks said to be the work of 
playful or irate giants. The titans were frolicsome and 
delighted in feats to show off. There is a large body of 
legends of diabolized nature, as the changing of the land- 
scape by demons, the sulphurizing of springs, and the 
cursing of localities. 

Many other aspects of nature are made the basis for 
supernatural folk-tales too numerous to mention. Stories 
of the enchanted bird, music, and water appear in various 
forms, and the droll-tellers of the Cornish country tell 
many stories of the weird associated with out-of-doors. 
The Celtic superstitions and tales have lived on through 
successive invasions and through many centuries have 
been told beside the peat fire. They have been preserved 
as an oral heritage or else in almost illegible manuscripts 

' In A ncient Legends and Superstitions of Ireland. 



230 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

in antique libraries, from which they are taken to be put 
into literature by the Celtic patriots of letters. The sense 
of terror and of awe, a belief in the darker powers, as well 
as an all-enveloping feeling of beauty is a heritage of the 
Celtic mind. It is interesting to note the obstinacy of 
these pantheistic, druidic stories in the face of Irish 
Catholicism. In many other bodies of folk- supernatural- 
ism in English we have similar legends of nature, as in the 
Hawaiian, the Indian, African, Canadian, Mexican stories, 
and elsewhere. But the material is so voluminous that 
one can do no more than suggest the field. 

Certain forces of nature are given supernatural power in 
drama and fiction, as the sea that is an awful, brooding Fate, 
in Synge's drama, or the wind and the flame in Algernon 
Blackwood's story. The Regeneration of Lord Ernie, or the 
goblin trees in another of his tales, that signify diabolic 
spirits, or the trees ^ that have a strange, compelling power 
over men, drawing them, going out bodily to meet them, 
luring them to destruction. Blackwood has stressed this 
form of supernaturalism to a marked degree. In Sand 
he shows desert incantations that embody majestic 
forces, evocations of ancient deities that bring the Sphynx 
to life, and other sinister powers. He takes the folk- 
loristic aspects of nature and makes them live, personifying 
the forces of out-door life as mythology did. The trees, the 
sand, the fire, the snow, the wind, the stream, the sea are 
all alive, with personality, with emotion, and definite being. 
His trees are more awesome than the woods of Dunsinane, 
for they actually do move upon their foe. In The Sea Fit 
he contends that the gods are not dead, but merely with- 
drawn, that one true worshiper can call them back to 
earth, especially the sea-gods. The sea comes in power for 
the man with the Viking soul and takes him to itself. 
His going is symbolic. 

' In The Man Whomthe Trees Loved. 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 231 

Uttering the singing sound of falling waters, he bent for- 
ward, turned. The next instant, curving over like a falling 
wave he swept along the glistening surface of the sands and 
was gone. In fluid form, wave-like, his being slipped away 
into the Being of the Sea. 

The uncanny potentialities of fire are revealed' where 
the internal flame breaks out of itself, the inner fire that 
burns in the heart of the earth and in men's hearts. The 
artist trying to paint a great picture of the Fire-wor- 
shiper is consumed by an intense, rapturous fever, and 
as he dies his face is like a white flame. The vSnow appears 
embodied as a luring woman. ^ She tries to draw a man 
to his death, with daemonic charm, seen as a lovely woman, 
but a snow demon. Blackwood shows the curious 
combination of the soul of a dead woman with the spirit 
of a place, 3 where a man is ejected by his own estate, 
turned out bodily as well as psychically, because he has 
become out of harmony with the locale. Nature here is 
sentient, emotional, possessing a child, expressing through 
her lips and hands a message of menace and warning. 
The moon is given diabolic power in one of Barry Pain's 
stories, and the maelstrom described by Poe has a sinister, 
more than human, power. August Stramm, the German 
dramatist, has given an uncanny force to the moor in one 
of his plays, making it the principal character as well as 
the setting for the action. This embodiment of nature's 
phases and phenomena as terrible powers goes back to 
ancient mythology with a revivifying influence. 

The supernatural beast-tale has always been a beloved 
form, ^sop's fables, the beast-cycles of medievalism, 
Reynard the Fox, the German Reineche Fuchs, all show 
how fond humanity is of the story that endows animals 
with human powers. Naturally one thinks of Kipling's 

* In The Heath Fire. ^ In The Glamor of the Stiow. 

3 In The Temptation of the Clay. 



232 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

Jungle Tales and Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus 
stories as the best modern examples, and these are so 
well known as to need but mention. Similar beast- 
cycles are found in the folk-fiction of other countries. 
Of course, it is understood that the Uncle Remus stories 
are not native to America, but were brought from Africa 
by the slaves and handed down through generations in the 
form in which Harris heard them by the cabin firesides in 
his boyhood. They are not "cooked" or edited any more 
than he could help, he tells us, but given in the dialectic 
form in which they came to him. There are various tales 
similar to this series, as Kaffir tales, collected by Theal, 
Amazonian tortoise myths brought together by Charles F. 
Hart, and Reynard, the Fox in South Africa, by W. H. I. 
Bleek. J. W. Powell in his investigations for the Smith- 
sonian Institute found legends among the Indians that led 
him to believe the Uncle Remus stories were originally 
learned from the red men, but Harris thought there was 
no basis for such theory. Anansi Stories, by Mary 
Pamela Milne-Horne, includes animal tales of the African 
type. Anansi is a mysterious being, a supernatural old 
man like a Scandinavian troll or English lubber-fiend, who 
plays tricks like those of the fox and like the jackal in 
Hindu stories. He is a spider as well as a man and can 
assume either shape at will. 

In primitive races and in the childhood of peoples 
there is the same element of close association between 
man and the animals that one finds in child-life. An 
animal is often nearer and dearer to a child than is a human 
being, as in crude races man is more like the animals, 
candid, careless, unreflecting. His sensations and emo- 
tions are simple, hunger, love, hate, fear. Animals, in 
turn, are lifted nearer the human in man's thinking, and 
are given human attributes in folk-lore which bridges 
the gulf that civilization has tended to fix between man 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 233 

and animals, and gives one more of a sense of the social 
union that Burns longed for. There is in these stories of 
whatever country a naivete reflecting the childhood of the 
race and of the world, a primitive simplicity in dealing 
with the supernatural. 

The folk-fiction of each country gives stories of the 
animals common to that section. In tropic countries 
we have stories of supernatural snakes, who appear in 
various forms, as were-snakes, shall we say? by turns 
reptiles and men, who marry mortal women, or as diabolic 
creatures that, like the devil, lose their divinity and become 
evil powers. We also see in the tropics elephants, lions, 
tigers, baboons, gorillas, and so forth, as well as certain 
insects, while in colder climes we have the fox, the wolf, 
the bear, and their confreres. In island countries we find 
a large element of the supernatural associated with fishes 
and sea-animals. Hawaiian stories recount adventures 
of magic beings born of sharks and women, who are 
themselves, by turns, human beings living a normal human 
life, and sharks, devouring men and women. Several of 
Eugene Field's stories are drawn from Hawaiian folk- 
supematuralism, as The Eel-king, and The Moon Lady. 

The Gaelic stories of Fiona McLeod show the super- 
natural relation existing between mortals and seals. 
The seals may wed human beings and their children are 
beings without souls, who may be either mortal or animal. 
The power of enchantment exercised by the creatures of 
the sea may turn men and women into sea-beasts, forever 
to lose their souls. This may be compared with The Pagan 
Seal-Wife, by Eugene Field, Hans Christian Andersen's 
sad story of the little mermaid, and The Forsaken Merman, 
by Matthew Arnold. Fiona ]McLeod tells the story of the 
Dark Nameless One, a nun who became the prey of a seal 
and was cursed with the penalty of living under the sea 
to weave fatal enchantments. The mermaids, the kel- 



234 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

pies, the sea-beasts are all half-human, half sea-beast, 
and have a fatal power over human souls, drawing them 
with a strange lure to give up their immortality. The 
kelpie appears in several of Fiona McLeod's stories and 
in The Judgment oj God the maighdeanhmara, a sea- 
maid, bewitches Murdoch, coming up out of the water as a 
seal and turning him into a beast, to live with her forever, 
a black seal that laughs hideously with the laughter of 
Murdoch. Edward Sheldon has recently written a play' 
using the mermaid motif, and H. G. Wells employs it as a 
vehicle for social satire^ where a mermaid comes ashore 
from The Great Beyond and contrasts mortal life with 
hers. The Merman and the Seraph, by William Benjamin 
Smith, is an unusual combination of unearthly creatures. 

In The Old Men oj the Twilight, W. B. Yeats describes 
the enchantment inflicted on the old men of learning, 
the ancient Druids, who were cursed by being turned into 
gray herons that must stand in useless meditation in 
pools or flit in solitary flight cross the world, like passing 
sighs. Lady Gregory tells of magic by which Lugh of the 
Long Hand puts his soul into the body of a mayfly that 
drops into the cup that Dechtire drinks from, so that she 
drinks his soul and must follow him to the dwelling-place 
of the Sidhe, or fairy people. Her fifty maidens must go 
with her under a like spell that turns them into birds, 
that fly in nine flocks, linked together two by two with 
silver chains, save those that lead who have golden chains. 
These beautiful birds live in the enchanted land far away 
from their loved ones. J. H. Pearce tells a touching story 
of the Little Crow of Paradise, of the bird that was cursed 
and sent to hell because it mocked Christ on the cross, 
but because it had pity on a mortal sufferer in hell and 
brought some cooling drops of water in its bill to cool his 
parching tongue, it was allowed to fly up and light on the 

' The Mermaid. ^ In The Sea Lady. 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 235 

walls of Paradise where it remains forever. Oscar Wilde's 
story The Nightingale and the Rose is symbolic of tragic 
genius, of vain sacrifice, where the tender-hearted bird 
gives his life-blood to stain a white rose red because a 
careless girl has told the poet who loves her that she must 
wear a red rose to the ball. But at the last she casts the 
rose aside and wears the jewels that a richer lover has sent, 
while the nightingale lies dead under the rose-tree. 

So we see everywhere in folk-fiction the supernatural 
power given to animals, which acts as an aid to man, as 
a shield and protection for him, or for his undoing. We 
see human beings turned into beasts as a curse from the 
gods for sin or as expressing the kinship between man and 
nature. In the different cycles of beast-tales we find a 
large element of humor, the keener-witted animals 
possessing a rare sense of the comical and relishing a joke 
on each other as on man. The Uncle Remus stories are 
often laughable in the extreme, and Bre'er Rabbit, 
who, we might at first thought decide, would be stupid, 
is no mean wit. We see a tragic symbolism in the stories 
of unhappy beasts who must lure mortals to their dam- 
nation, yet feel a sense of human sorrow and remorse. In 
these animal stories we find most of the significant quali- 
ties of literature, humor, romance, tragedy, mysticism, 
and symbolic poetry, with a deep underlying philosophy 
of life pervading them all. 

Lord Dunsany in his modern aspects of mythology, 
perhaps drawn in part from classic mythology though 
perhaps altogether Celtic in its material, brings together 
animals to which we are not accustomed. He has a story 
of a centaur, a frolicsome creature two hundred and fifty 
years young, who goes caracoling off the end of the world 
to find his bride. Algernon Blackwood tells of a man who 
remembers havmg been a centaur and lives in memory- 
metempsychosis his experiences of that far-off time. 



236 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

Dunsany introduces other curious, unfamiliar beasts to 
us, as the bride whom the man-horse seeks in her temple 
beside her sad lake-sepulchre, Sombelene, of immortal 
beauty, whose father was half centaur and half god, 
whose mother the child of a desert lion and the sphinx. 
There is the high-priest of Maharrion, who is neither 
bird nor cat, but a weird gray beast like both. There 
is the loathsome dragon with glittering golden scales 
that rattles up the London streets and seizes Miss Cub- 
bige from her balcony and carries her off to the eternal 
lands of romance lying far away by the ancient, soundless 
sea. We must not forget the Gladsome Beast, he who 
dwells underneath fairyland, at the edge of the world, 
the beast that eats men and destroys the cabbages of the 
Old Man Who Looks after Fairyland, but is the synonym 
for joy. His joyous chuckles never cease till Ackronnion 
sings of the malignity of time, when the Gladsome Beast 
weeps great tears into an agate bowl. There are the 
hippogriffs, dancing and whirling in the far sunlight, 
coming to earth with whirring flight, bathing in the pure 
dawn, one to be caught with a magic halter, to carry its 
rider past the Under Pits to the City of Never. There are 
the gnoles in their high house, whose silence is unearthly 
"like the touch of a ghoul," over which is ''a look in the 
sky that is worse than a spoken doom," that watch the 
mortals through holes in the trunks of trees and bear 
them away to their fate. Lord Dunsany looses the reins 
of his fancy to carry him into far, ancient lands, to show 
us the wonders that never were. 

Magic forms an alluring element of the supernatural 
romance, and we find it manifesting itself in many ways. 
In the romances of William Morris, prose as well as poetry, 
we find enchantment recurring again and again, as in 
The Water of the Wondrous Isles, The Wood beyond the 
World, The Well at the World's End, and others. Yeats 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 237 

said that Morris's style in these old stories was the most 
beautiful prose he had ever read, and that it influenced 
his own work greatly. He has unearthly characters, 
such as the Witch-wife, the Wood-wife, the Stony 
People, and so forth. He shows us the enchanted boat, 
the Sending Boat, the cage with the golden bars which 
prison the three maidens, magic runes with mighty 
power, the Water of Might which gives to the one drink- 
ing it supernatural vision and magic power, the changing 
skin, the Wailing Tower, the Black Valley of the Grey- 
weathers, and so forth. Birdalone's swoon-dream in the 
White Palace is unearthly, as the witches' wordless howls. 
Part of the weirdness of Morris's prose is due to the 
antique tone, the forgotten words, the rune-like quality 
of the rhythm. 

Yeats tells of magic whereby a woman is gifted with 
immortal youth and beauty, so that she may wed the 
prince of the fairies ; of the glamour that falls on a mortal 
so that he loses his wits and remains ' ' with his head on his 
knees by the fire to the day of his death"; of shadow 
hares, of fire-tongued hounds that follow the lost soul 
across the world, of whistling seals that sink great ships, 
of bat-like darker powers, of the little gray doves of the 
good. 

Dr. Hyde, in his Paudeen O'Kelly and the Weasel, speaks 
of a sun-myth, of a haunted forest, of a princess super- 
naturally beautiful, of the witch who complains to the 
robber, "Why did you bring away my gold that I was for 
five hundred years gathering through the hills and hollows 
of the world?" 

Lady Gregory tells of Diarmuid's love-spot, where 
Youth touched him on the forehead, so that no woman 
could look upon him without giving him her love; of 
Miach who put the eye of a cat in a man's head, with 
inconvenient results, for 



238 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

when he wanted to sleep and take his rest, it is then the eye 
would start at the squeaking of the mice, or the flight of birds, 
or the movement of the rushes; and when he was wanting to 
watch an army or a gathering, it is then it was sure to be in a 
sound sleep. 

She shows us Druid rods that change mortals into birds ; 
of Druid mists that envelop armies and let the ancient 
heroes win ; of Druid sleep that lasts sometimes for years ; 
of the screaming stone; of kisses that turn into birds, 
some of them saying, "Come! Come!" and others "I go! 
I go!"; of invisible walls that shield one from sight; of 
magic that makes armies from stalks of grass ; of wells of 
healing that cure every wound. 

Oscar Wilde, in his fairy stories and symbolic allegories, 
tells of magic, whereby the Happy Prince, high on the 
pedestal on the square, has a heart of lead because he 
sees the misery of the people, and sends a swallow as his 
messenger to pick out his jeweled eyes and take them to 
the suffering ones. He speaks of the wonder by which 
the bodies of the mermaid and the fisherman who lost his 
soul for love of her, when they are buried in uncon- 
secrated ground, send forth strange flowers that are 
placed on the sacred altar. 

The dark enchantment appears in the poetry as often as 
in the prose, from Coleridge's Christahel to the present. 
Gordon Bottomley's The Crier by Night is a story of an 
evil presence that lurks in a pool, coming out to steal the 
souls of those it can lure into its waters. The woman, 
desperate from jealousy, who invokes its aid, says: 

"For I can use this body worn to a soul 
To barter with the Crier of hidden things 
That if he tangle him in his chill hair 
Then I will follow and follow and follow and follow 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 239 

Past where the ringed stars ebb past the Hght 
And turn to water under the dark world!" 

The fairy has always been a favorite being with poets, 
dramatists, and romancers, from Shakespeare, Spenser, 
and Milton to the present time. There is no figure more 
firmly established in folk-literatiire, none more difficult 
to dislodge despite their delicacy and ethereal qualities 
than the Little People. The belief in fairies is firmly 
established in Gaelic-speaking sections and the Celtic 
peasant would as soon give up his religion as his belief 
in the Sidhe. W. B. Yeats, in Celtic Tivilight, tells of an 
Irish woman of daring imbelief in hell, or in ghosts w^ho, 
she held, would not be permitted to go trapsin' about the 
earth at their own free will, but who asserted, "There are 
fairies, and little leprechaims, and water-horses, and 
fallen angels." Even,'body among the peasantry believes 
in fairies, "for they stand to reason." And there are not 
wanting others more learned that believe in the small 
folk, as W. Y. E. Wentz, who in his volume Fairy Faith 
in Celtic Countries puts up a loyal argument for the 
existence of the Sidhe. He says: 

Fairies exist, because in all essentials they appear to be 
the same as the intelligent forces now recognized by psycho- 
logical researchers, be they thus collective units of conscious- 
ness like what William James caUs soul-stuff or more indi\4dual 
units like veridical apparitions. 

If it were left to me, I'd as soon not believe in fairies as 
have to think of them as veridical units! Mr. Wentz 
has never seen any fairies himself, but he tells a number of 
stories to substantiate his faith in them. 

The volumes of fairy stories are by no means all for 
juvenile consumption, since the modem adult dearly 
loves the type himself. ^lany, or most, of the stories of 



240 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

fairies told frankly for children are adaptations or variants 
of continental folk-legends. The more literary side of 
fairy-literature has come from the Celtic lore, for the 
Dim People are dearest of all supernatural beings to the 
Celtic soul. The Irish, more innately poetic than most 
races, cling more fondly to the beings of beauty and gather 
round them delicate, undying stories. W. B. Yeats, 
Lady Gregory, Lady Wilde, Oscar Wilde, John Singe, and 
Fiona McLeod have given in poetry and lyric prose the 
Celtic fairy-lore, and have made us know the same wild, 
sweet thrill that the peasants feel. The poetic thought 
of the primitive races peoples ever^^thing in nature, every 
bird and blossom and tree, with its own fairy personality. 

Thackeray has written a fairy pantomime for great 
and small children, as he says, in which the adventures 
of Prince Giglio and Prince Bulbo are recounted. Eugene 
Field has a charming story of the Fairies of Pesth, and 
Charles Kingsley's Water Babies enriched the imagination 
of most of us in youthful or adult years with its charming 
nonsense of beings possible and impossible. J. M. 
Barrie in Peter Pan won the doubtful world over to a 
confessed faith in the fairy-folk, for did we not see the 
marvels before our eyes? In The Little White Bird Barrie 
tells us how fairies came to be, — that they have their 
origin in the first laugh of the first baby that broke into a 
million bits and went skipping about, each one a fairy. 
He shows us the wee folk in Kensington Gardens, where 
by the ignorant they are mistaken for flowers, but children 
and those with the poet heart can see the flashing faces 
and green garments ot the fairies among the pansy beds. 

W. B. Yeats is a favorite with the fairies, for they have 
given him the dower of magic vision, to glimpse the 
unseen things, to hear the faint, musical voices of fairy 
pipes and song. He tells us many stories of the Dim 
People, in his tales and dramas. The Land of Heart's 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 241 

Desire, the story of the struggle between the divine and 
mortal forces and the powers of the Sidhe to claim the 
soul of the young wife and of the triumph of the fairies, 
by which the girl's body falls lifeless by the hearth while 
her spirit speeds away to live forever in the land "where 
nobody gets old or sorry or poor," has a poignant pathos, 
a wild, dreamy beauty that touches the heart. Yeats 
tells of the Imperishable Rose of Beauty, of fantastic 
doings of the fairy-folk who steal mortals away, especially 
new-born babies or new-wed brides, of evil fairies who 
slay men in malice, and of the dances by moonlit hill- 
side when mortals are asleep. 

James Stephens in The Crock of Gold mingles delight- 
fully fairy -lore with other elements of the supernatural, 
as talking beasts, and insects, the gods, a leprechaun, and 
Pan, combining with the droll philosophy of the bachelor 
man to make a charming social satire. The union of the 
world of reality with that of the wee people is seen in the 
sad little story of H. G. Wells, The Man Who Had Been 
in Fairyland. A crude, materialistic middle-class English- 
man, in love with an ordinary young woman, falls asleep 
on a fairy knoll one night and is kidnapped by the Dim 
People who take him to their country, where their queen 
falls in love with him. She vainly woos him, but he is 
stolidly true to the thick-ankled girl of the town, until 
the fairies send him back in sleep to mortal life. But 
when he wakes on the knoll he is home-sick for fairyland, 
he cares no more for the village girl who seems coarse and 
repulsive compared with the elfin creature whose love he 
might have kept in the land of wonder, so he is wretched, 
unable to fit again into mortal life and unable to reopen 
the doors that closed inexorably upon him by his wish. 
This is a modern version of the motif of the mortal lover 
and the fairy bride that we find so often in mediaeval bal- 
lads and romances, a survival of the Celtic wonder-lore. 
16 



24^ The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

Arthur Lewis in London Fairy Tales writes philosophic 
human stories in the guise of fairy tales, attempting 
frankly to bring the impossible into contact with daily 
life. They are weird little symbolic stories with an earthly 
wisdom associated with unearthh^ beings. The Passion- 
ate Crime, by E. Temple Thurston, is a symbolic fairy 
novel, the fairies being figures of the man's besetting sins, 
bodiless presences blown on the winds of feeling, as the 
woman he loves is lured by the fairy of her own beauty. 

Whether fair^dand be an actual place or a state of 
mind, it is a province still open to romancers, and folk- 
lorists have aroused a new interest in the Little People 
who may come nearer to us than before. The flood of 
volimies recounting Celtic folk-tales with their fairy- 
lore alone would make a long catalogue, and one can do no 
more than suggest the presence of the fairy in English 
fiction. Andrew Lang was a faithful lover of the Sidhe 
and made many collections of fairy stories, Eden Phill- 
potts has written much of them, and various writers have 
opened their magic to us. Some place the land of faerie 
under the ground, some in secret caves, some in the mind, 
and Lord Dunsany says that the Old Man Who Looks 
after Fairyland lives in a house whose parlor windows 
look away from the world, and "empties his slops sheer 
on to the Southern Cross." 

We find many stories of gods, demigods, and heroes 
tangled up together in folk-tales and in the literature they 
have influenced. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish 
between them, and again it is interesting to note how the 
hero-myth has been converted into the tale of a god. 
Celtic romances and folk-supernaturalism give many 
stories of gods, demigods, and heroes of superhuman 
force. It would be interesting if one could trace them to 
their ultimate sources and discover how much they have 
been suggested or influenced by classical mythology. 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 243 

In Fiction of the Irish Celts, by Patrick Kennedy, are 
numberless stories of the Fianna Eironn, or Heroes of 
Ireland, some of whom really flourished in the third 
century and whose adventures were the favorite stories 
of the kings and chiefs as sung by the ancient bards. 
Kennedy also retells many of the Ossianic legends. In 
Bardic Stories of Ireland he relates the exploits of per- 
sonages dating back to druidic times and earlier, who 
reflect the remote stages of the legendary history of the 
people, such as the antique King Fergus, who was given 
supernatural power by the fairies and slew the sea- 
monster; Cormac, who did many doughty deeds assisted 
by the powers of the Immortals, and many others. W. 
B. Yeats, in his Stories of Red Ranrahan, gives us glimpses 
of an Irish Frangois Villon, a man of wandering nature, 
of human frailties, yet with a divine gift of song. 

Lady Gregory tells the wonderful saga of Cuchulain, 
the hero-god of Ireland, in Cuchulain of Muirthemne, 
which W. B. Yeats calls ''perhaps the best book that has 
ever come out of Ireland." It was his mother Dechtire 
that drank the soul of Lugh of the Strong Hand, as he 
flew into her wine-cup in the form of a Mayfly, so that 
she was bound by enchantment and carried away with 
her fifty maidens as a flock of lovely birds. When anger 
came upon him the hero light would shine about his head, 
he understood all the arts of the druids and had super- 
natural beauty and strength in battle. Cuchulain, the 
Hound of Ulster, and his Red Branch have filled the 
legendry of Ireland with wonder. 

Lady Gregory tells of the high king of Ireland who 
married Etain of the Sidhe; of the nine pipers that came 
out of the hill of the Sidhe, whom to fight with was to 
fight with a shadow, for they could not be killed; of 
Conchobar, the king, that loved Deirdre of the burning 
beauty for whom many candles of the Gael were blown 



244 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

out; of Cniachan, who knew dniid enchantments greater 
than the magic of the fairies so that he was able to fight 
with the Dim People and overcome them, and to cover 
the whole province with a deep snow so that the}' could 
not follow him. In Gods and Fighting Men Lady Gregory 
tells of ancient divinities that met men as equals. We 
come to know Oisin, son of Finn, who is king over a divine 
countiy-; of the Men of Dea who fought against the mis- 
shapen Fomer. Men are called to the country of Under- 
Wave where the gods promise them all their desires, as the 
god Medhir tells Queen Etain that in his coimtry one 
never grows old, that there is no sorrow, no care among 
invisible gods. She tells us of Finn, who fought with 
monsters, who killed many great serpents in Loch Cuilinn, 
and Shadow- shapes at Loch Lein, and fought with the 
three-headed hag, and nine headless bodies that raised 
harsh screeches. We meet Diarmuid, who married a 
daughter of King Under- Wave, who raised a house by en- 
chantment, and whom Grania, of the fatal beauty, loved. 

Jeremiah Curtin, Aldis Dunbar, and many another 
writer have told us of the wonderful legends of the Celtic 
gods and heroes, who somehow seem more human than 
Arthur and his Table Round or any of the English mythi- 
cal heroes. 

It is Lord Dunsany, however, who specializes in gods in 
recent times. He fairly revels in divinities and demons, 
in idols and out-of-the-world creatures. His dramas of 
this nature are mentioned in another connection, as A 
Night at an Inn, where a jade idol slays ^dth silent horror 
the men who have stolen his emerald eye; The Gods of the 
Moimtains, where seven beggars masquerade as the 
mountain gods come to life, and some of the people believe 
but some doubt. But at last the seven gods from the 
mountain come down, terrible figures of green stone, and 
with sinister menace point terrible fingers at the beggars, 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 245 

who stiffen as on pedestals, draw their feet under them 
like the cross-legged posture of the images, and turn to 
stone, so that the people coming say: "They were the 
true gods. They have turned to stone because we doubted 
them." In The Gods 0} Pegana are many fantastic tales 
of divinities never heard of before, whom Dunsany calls 
to life with the lavish ease of genius and makes immortal. 
In Time and the Gods we see many gods, with their servant 
the swart, sinister Time who serves them, but maliciously. 
The gods dream marble dreams that have magic power, 
for " with domes and pinnacles the dreams arose and stood 
up proudly between the river and the slcy, all shimmering 
white to the morning." But Sardathrion, this city of 
visions, is overthrown by hateful Time, whereat the 
mighty gods weep grievous tears. He tells us of Slid, a 
new god that comes striding through the stars, past where 
the ancient divinities are seated on their thrones, as a 
million waves march behind him; of Inzana, the daughter 
of all the gods who plays with the sun as her golden ball 
and weeps when it falls into the sea, so that Umborodom 
with his thunder hound must seek it again and again for 
her. He whispers to us of the prophet who saw the 
gods one night as they strode knee-deep in stars, and 
above them a mighty hand, showing a higher power. 
The gods are jealous of him that he has seen, so they rob 
him of knowledge of the gods, of moon and sky, of butter- 
flies and flowers, and all lovely things. And last they steal 
his soul away from him, from which they make the South 
Wind, forever to roam the waste spaces of the world, 
mournful, unremembering. 

In The Book of Wonder are still other gods, as Hlo-Hlo, 
who wears the haloes of other gods on golden hooks along 
his hunting-belt; the Sphinx, who "remembers in her 
smitten mind at which little boys now leer, that she once 
knew well those things at which man stands aghast"; 



246 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

the certain disreputable god who knows nothing of eti- 
quette and will grant prayers that no respectable god 
would ever consent to hear; Chu-chu and Sheemish, who 
become angry with each other and raise rival earth- 
quakes that destroy their temple and them. We are 
told of the" Gibbelins that eat men, whose home is beyond 
the known regions, and whose treasures many burglars 
try in vain to steal only to meet death instead. Alderic 
tries a crafty way to evade them but they are waiting for 
him. "And without saying a word or even smiling they 
neatly hang him on the outer wall, — and the tale is one 
of those that have not a happy ending." But enough of 
gods! — though we should not forget the Aztec legend 
on which Lew Wallace's novel, The Fair God, was founded, 
of the white divinity who was to come and rule the people. 
There are many other elements of folkloristic super- 
naturalism that cannot be mentioned, as the banshee, the 
wailful creature that is a presager of death and the loss of 
the soul; the fetches, ghosts of the living, whom John and 
Michael Banim write much about; the pixies, as appear- 
ing in such works as S. Baring-Gould's Eve, and Stephens's 
The Crock of Gold; the mountain trolls that play pranks on 
Ibsen's Peer Gynt and Irv^ing's Rip van Winkle; the 
"worrie-cow" that Scott tells about; the saints and 
miracles that abound in Celtic literature as in that of any 
Catholic country, and such as Thomas A. Janvier has told 
of so delightfully in his legends of the City of Mexico. The 
giant has almost faded from fiction, since, poor thing, he 
doesn't fit in well with the modem scheme of housing. 
He came into the Gothic novel from the Oriental tale 
where he had his origin, but now he appears in our fiction 
only sporadically, as in Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant, 
in a couple of stories by Blackwood, and a few others. 
We are glad to meet him occasionally in frank folk-tales 
since literature at large repudiates this favorite of our 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 247 

youth. He would not suit well on the stage, for obvious 
reasons, and realism rejects him. 

Lord Dunsany tells of elves and gnomes, of the Moomoo, 
of the magic sword called Mouse, of the gnoles that caught 
Tonker, of the ancient Thuls, of the window that opened 
to the magic of the world, and of many other things which 
only the very young or the very wise care for. 

Arthur Machen deals with strange, sinister aspects of 
supernaturalism unlike the wholesome folklore that other 
writers reveal to us. He seems to take his material 
chiefly from the Pit, to let loose upon the world a slimy 
horde of unnamable spirits of ageless evil. One reads of 
the White People, who are most loathsome fairies under 
whose influence the rocks dance obscene dances in the 
Witches' Sabbath, and the great white moon seems an 
unclean thing. Images of clay made by human hands come 
to diabolic life, and at mystic incantations the nymph 
Alanna turns the pool in the woodland to a pool of fire. 
In The Great God Pan the timeless menace comes to earth 
again, corrupting the souls of men and women, rendering 
them unbelievably vile. In The Red Hand he brings 
together ancient runes with magic power, black stones 
that tell secrets of buried treasure, flinty stone like 
obsidian ten thousand years old that murders a man on a 
London street, a whorl of figures that tell of the black 
heaven, giving an impression of vast ages of enigmatic 
power. One feels one should rinse his mind out after 
reading Arthur Machen 's stories, particularly the collec- 
tion called The Three Impostors. 

This discussion has taken more note of the Celtic 
folk-fiction than of any other group influence, because 
more than any other it has left its imprint on modem 
literature. There are hundreds of volumes of folk-tales 
of the supernatural in English, but the Celtic Revival has 
molded its legends into literature that is its own excuse 



248 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

for being. In the work of this school we get a passionate 
mysticism, a poetic symboHsm that we find scarcely any- 
where else in English prose, save in such rhapsodic 
passages as some of De Quincey's impassioned prose. 
Melody, which forms so large a part of the effect of super- 
naturalism in poetry, is here employed to heighten lyric 
prose. Some of the wild stories are like the croon of the 
peasant mother by her cradle beside the peat-fire, some 
like wild barbaric runes of terrible unguessed import, 
some like the battle-cry of hero-gods, some like the 
keening of women beside their dead. The essential poetry 
of the Celtic soul pours itself forth in rapturous, wistful 
music, now like a chant, a hymn, a wedding-song, a 
lament for the lost soul. 

In the Celtic folk-tales we get a mixture of romances, 
of the survivals of barbaric days, the ancient druid myths, 
the pagan legends, savage beliefs overlaid and interwoven 
with the later Christian traditions. Sometimes the old 
pagan myths themselves become moral allegories, the 
legend being used to tell a late-learned moral truth. But, 
for the most part, there is no attempt at teaching save 
that which comes spontaneously, the outburst of passion- 
ate, poetic romance, the heritage of a people that love 
wonder and beauty. 

The pagan poetry of the Gaelic race lives on and throbs 
over again in Fiona McLeod's symboHc moralities. The 
mystical figures of awe and woe appear from the dim past, 
a rapturous paganism showing through the medieval 
religious brooding. Yet they are so symbolic of the spirit 
that they are timeless. Coming as they do out of the dim 
legendary past, they may reflect the veiled years of the 
future. They are mystic chronicles of the soul, as in The 
Divine Adventure, where the Body and Will alike shrink 
back from that "silent, sad-eyed foreigner, the Soul." 

In the stories of Yeats we get similar effects, the weird 



The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 249 

power of the old curse-making bards, the gift of second- 
sight, a spiritual vision, the spiritual sense that hears 
past the broken discordant sounds the music of the world, 
the power to catch the moment "that trembles with the 
Song of Immortal Powers." We hear faint whispers, 
catch fleeting glimpses of the Dim People, see again the 
druids, the culdees, the ancient bards and heroes. We 
discern in the Celtic literature a sadness, dim, unreasoning 
yet deep, such as we see in the faces of animals and little 
children. We see such symbolism as that of the self- 
centered lovers who have heart-shaped mirrors instead of 
hearts, seeing only their own images throughout eternity. 
We feel the poetic thoughts drifting past us like sweet 
falling rose-leaves, bright with the colors of bygone years, 
like fluttering bird-wings, like happy sighs. Yet again 
they are terrible tnmipets blown in the day of doom. 
We have the modem mysticism and symbolism side by 
side with the old druidic mysticism, which seems like 
dream-stuff with deep spiritual import. Yeats makes us 
feel that the old divinities are not dead, but have taken 
up their abode in the hearts of poets and writers of 
romance, and that the land of faery is all about us if we 
would only see. But we lack the poetic vision. He makes 
us see the actuality of thought, that thinking has its own 
vital being and goes out into the world like a living thing, 
possessed by some wandering soul. He shows us that 
thought can create black hounds or silver doves to follow 
the soul, bring to life at will a divinity or a demon. 

A certain supematiu-al element of style seems to lend 
itself to some of the writers of strange fiction. Some of 
Oscar Wilde's sentences unfold like wild, exotic flowers, in 
a perfumed beauty that suggests a subtle poison at the 
heart. Lord Dunsany writes joyously of fantastic crea- 
tures with a happy grace, sometimes like a lilting laugh, 
sometimes a lyric rhapsody. His evoked beings are 



250 The Supernatural in Folk-Tales 

sportive or awesome but never unclean. Arthur Machen's 
stories have an effect like a slimy trail of some loathly 
beast or serpent. William Morris's style is like an old 
Norse rune, while Algernon Blackwood makes us think 
of awakened, elemental forces hostile to man. We feel 
bodiless emotions, feelings unclothed with flesh, sad 
formless spirits blown on the winds of the world. These 
folk-tales reflect the sweet carelessness of the Irish soul, 
the stern sadness of the Scotch, the psychic subtlety of the 
modern English. , And as the study of folk-lore has 
influenced the fiction of the supernatural, so these pub- 
lished romances have aroused a wondering interest in the 
legendry of the past and made of folk-lore a science. 



CHAPTER VII 
Supernatural Science 

THE application of modern science to supematuralism, 
or of the supernatural to modem science, is one 
of the distinctive features of recent literature. 
Ghostly fiction took a new and definite turn with the rapid 
advance in scientific knowledge and investigation in the 
latter part of the nineteenth century, for the work of 
Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, and their co-laborers did as 
much to quicken thought in romance as in other lines. 
Previous literature had made but scant effort to reflect 
even the crude science of the times, and what was written 
was so unconvincing that it made comparatively little 
impress. Almost the only science that Gothic fiction 
dealt with, to any noticeable extent, was associated with 
alchemy and astrology. The alchemist sought the 
philosopher's stone and the elixir of life while the astrologer 
tried to divine human destiny by the stars. Zofioya 
dabbled in diabolic chemistry, and Frankenstein created 
a man-monster that was noteworthy as an incursion into 
supernatural biology, yet they are almost isolated in- 
stances. Now each advance in science has had its re- 
flection in supernatural fiction and each phase of research 
contributes plot material, while some of the elements 
once considered wholly of the devil are now scientific. 
The sorcerer has given place to the bacteriologist and the 
botanist, the marvels of discovery have displaced miracles 

251 



252 Supernatural Science 

as basis for unearthly plot material, and it is from the 
laboratory that the ghostly stories are now evolved, 
rather than from the vault and charnel-room as in the past. 
Science not only furnishes extraordinary situations for 
curdling tales, but it is an excellent hook to hang super- 
natural tales upon, for it gives an excuse for believing 
anything, however incredible. Man is willing to accept 
the impossible, if he be but given a modern excuse for it. 
He will swallow the wildest improbability if the bait be 
labeled science or psychical research. No supernatural- 
ism is incredible if it is expressed in technical terminology, 
and no miracle will be rejected if its setting be in a labora- 
tory. One peculiar thing about modern scientific thought 
in its reaction upon fiction is that it is equally effective 
in realism, such as shown in the naturalistic novels of 
Zola, the plays of Brieux and others, and in supernatural- 
ism, as in the work of H. G. Wells, for instance, where the 
ghostly is grafted on to cold realism. 

The transition from the sorcerer, the wizard, the war- 
lock of older fiction to the scientist in the present has been 
gradual. The sorcerer relied wholly upon supernatural, 
chiefly diabolic, agencies for his power, while the wizard 
of the modern laboratory applies his knowledge of mole- 
cules and gases to aid his supermortal forces. Modern 
science itself seems miraculous, so its employment in 
ghostly stories is but natural. The Arabian Nights' Tales 
seem not more marvelous than the stories of modem 
investigations. Hawthorne's narratives stand between the 
old and the new types of science, his Rappaccini, Dr. 
Heidigger, Gaffer Dolliver, Septimius Felton and his 
rivals in search for the elixir of youth, as well as the 
husband who sought to efface the birthmark from his 
young wife's cheek, being related in theme to the older 
conventional type and in treatment to the new. Poe's 
scientific stories are more modem in method and material. 



Supernatural Science 253 

and in fact he made claim of originality of invention for 
the idea of making fiction plausible by the use of scientific 
laws. His Descent into the Maelstrom^ MS. Found in a 
Bottle, and other stories were novel in the manner in which 
they united the scientifically real and the supernatural. 
The Pit and the Pendulum, with its diabolical machinery, 
is akin to the modern mechanistic stories rather than to 
anything that had preceded it. Poe paved the way for 
H. G. Wells's use of the ghostly mechanical and scientific 
narratives, as his stories of hypnotism with its hideous 
aftermath of horror must have given suggestion for Arthur 
Machen's revolting stories of physical operations with 
unearthly consequences. An example of the later mani- 
festations of supernaturalism in connection with science 
is in Sax Rohmer's tales of Fu-Manchu, the Chinese 
terror, the embodied spirit of an ancient evil that entered 
into him at his birth, because of his nearness to an old 
burying-ground, and who, to his unholy alliance unites a 
wizard knowledge of modern science in its various aspects. 
With every power of cunning and intellect intensified, 
with a technical knowledge of all means with which to 
fight his enemies, he ravages society as no mere sorcerer 
of early fiction could do. 

The modern stories of magic have a skillful power of 
suggestiveness, being so cunningly contrived that on the 
surface they seem plausible and natural, with nothing 
supernatural about them. Yet behind this seeming 
simplicity lurks a mystery, an unanswered question, an 
unsolved problem. W. W. Jacobs's The Monkey's Paw, 
for instance, is one of the most effectively terrible stories 
of magic that one could conceive of. The shriveled paw 
of a dead monkey, that iS believed by some to give its 
possessor the right to have three wishes granted, becomes 
the symbol of inescapable destiny, the Weird, or Fate of 
the old tragedy, though the horrors that follow upon the 



254 Supernatural Science 

wishes' rash utterance may be explained on natural 
grounds. The insidious enigma is what makes the story 
tmforgettable. Barrv^ Pain's Exchange might be given as 
another example of problematic magic that owes its power 
to elusive myster}^ The witch-woman, the solitary' Fate, 
who appears to persons offering them such dreadful 
alternatives, might be conceived of as the figment of sick 
brains, yet the reader knows that she is not. 

Richard Middleton's The Coffin Merchant seems simple 
enough on the surface, and the literal-minded could ex- 
plain the occurrence on normal grounds, yet the story 
has a peculiar haunting supematuralism. A coffin 
merchant claims to be able to know who among passers- 
by will die soon, and hands a man an advertisement for a 
coffin, asserting that he will need it. The man later goes 
to the shop to rebuke the merchant for his methods but 
ends by signing a contract for his own funeral. On 
leaving, he shakes hands with the dealer, after which he 
unconsciously puts his hand to his lips, feeling a slight 
sting. He dies that night, — of what? Of poison, of fear, 
of supernatural suggestion, or in the natural course of 
events? The series called The Strange Cases of Dr. 
Stanchion, by Josephine Daskam Bacon, shows instances 
occurring among the clientele of a famous brain specialist, 
where the materialist might put aside the explanation of 
the supernatural, only to be confronted by still greater 
problems. The relation between insanity and ghostliness 
in recent fiction is significant and forms the crux of many 
a story since Poe. Mrs. Bacon's The Miracle, for instance, 
has its setting in an insane asylimi, but the uncanny 
happenings almost convince us of the sanity of the 
patients and the paranoia of the outsiders. We come to 
agree with the specialist that ever>^ person is more or less 
a paranoiac, and none more so than he who scoffs at the 
supernatural. 



Supernatural Science 255 

Another aspect of the transfer of magic in modem 
fiction to a scientific basis is that of second sight or super- 
natural vision. This motif still retains all its former effect 
of the unearthly, perhaps gaining more, since the scientific 
twist seems to give the idea that the ghostly power resides 
in the atoms and molecules and gases and machines 
themselves, rather than in the person who manipulates 
them, which is more subtly haunting in its impression. 
Second sight has been used as a means for producing 
uncanny effects all along the line of fiction. Defoe even 
used it in a number of his hoax pamphlets, as well as in 
his History of Duncan Campbell, and folk-lore is full of 
such stories, especiall}' in the Highlands. 

The modem use of supernatural vision is based appar- 
ently on natural science, which makes the weird power 
more striking. The Black Patch, by Randolph Hartley, 
tells of an experiment in optics that produces a strange 
result. Two students exchange left eyeballs for the pur- 
pose of stud^^ing the effects of the operation, leaving the 
right eye in each case unimpaired. When the young men 
recover from the operation and the bandages are removed, 
they discover that an extraordinary^ thing has taken place. 
The first, while seeing with his right eye his own surround- 
ings as usual, sees also with his left — which is his friend's 
left, that is — what that friend is looking at with his right 
eye, thousands of miles away. The severing of the optic 
nerve has not disturbed the sympathetic vision between 
the companion eyes, so this curious double sight results. 
In a quarrel arising from this peculiar situation, the 
first man kills the second, and sees on his left eye the 
hideous image of his own face distorted with murderous 
rage, as his friend saw it, which is never to be effaced, 
because the companion eye is dead and will see no more. 

Another instance of farsightedness is told in John 
Kendrick Bangs 's The Speck on the Leris, where a man has 



256 Supernatural Science 

such an extraordinar}^ left eye that when he looks through 
a lens he sees round the world, and gets a glimpse of the 
back of his own head which he thinks is a speck on the 
lens. Only two men in the world are supposed to have 
that power. 

The Remarkable Case of Davidson' s Eyes, by H. G. Wells, 
is an interesting example of this new scientific transference 
of magic vision. Davidson is working in a laboratory 
which is struck by lightning, and after the shock he finds 
himself unable to visualize his surroundings, but instead 
sees the other side of the world, ships, a sea, sands. The 
explanation given by a professor turns on learned theories 
of space and the Fourth Dimension. He thinks that 
Davidson, in stooping between the poles of the electro- 
magnet, experienced a queer twist in his mental retinal 
elements through the sudden force of the lightning. As 
the author says: "It sets one dreaming of the oddest 
possibilities of intercommtmication in the future, of 
spending an intercalary five minutes on the other side of 
the world, of being watched in our most secret operations 
by unexpected eyes." Davidson's vision comes back 
queerly, for he begins to see the things around him by 
piecemeal, as apparently the two fields of vision overlap 
for a time. 

Brander Matthews in The Kinetoscope of Time intro- 
duces an instrument with eyepieces that show magic 
vision. The beholder sees scenes from the past, from 
literature as well as from life, has glimpses of Salome 
dancing, of Esmerelda, witnesses the combat between 
Achilles and Hector, the tourney between Saladin and 
the Knight of the Leopard. The magician offers to show 
him his future — for a price — but he is wise enough to 
refuse. 

Magic views of the future constitute an interesting 
aspect of the supernatural vision in modem stories. 



Supernatural Science 257 

The Lifted Veil, by George Eliot, is an account of a man 
who has prophetic glimpses of his fate, which seem power- 
less to warn him, since he marries the woman who he 
knows will be his doom, and he is aware that he will die 
alone, deserted even by his servants, yet cannot help it. 
He sees himself dying, with the attendants off on their 
own concerns, knows every detail beforehand, but un- 
avaiHngly. This suggests Amos Judd, by J. A. Mitchell, 
which is a curious instance of the transition stage of 
second sight, related both to the old sorcerer type and to 
the new scientific ideas. Amos Judd, so called, is the son 
of an Indian rajah, sent out of his country because of a 
revolution, and brought up in ignorance of his birth in a 
New England farmhouse. Vishnu, in the far past, has 
laid his finger on the brow of one of the rajah's ancestors, 
thereby endowing him with the gift of magic vision, which 
descends once in a hundred years to some one of his line. 
Amos Judd therefore, can see the future by pictures, 
beholding clearly ever3''thing that will happen to him. 
He sees himself lying dead at a desk, on which stands a 
calendar marking the date, November 4th. His friends 
persuade him to live past the date, and they think all is 
well, till one day while he is on a visit to a strange house 
he is killed by an assassin. They find him lying at a desk, 
with an out-of-date calendar beside him, marking Novem- 
ber 4th. 

Barr}?- Pain endows a bulldog with the power to foretell 
the future, to reveal disaster and oppose it. Zero, in the 
story by that name, is a common bulldog greatly valued 
because he has a supernatural knowledge of an}^ evil that 
threatens those he loves, and by his canine sagacity he 
forestalls fate. In the end, in protecting his master's little 
child, he is bitten by a mad dog, whose coming he has 
supematurally foreseen, and he commits suicide as the 
only way out of the difficulty. Arthur Machen, in TJie 



258 Supernatural Science 

Bowmen and Others, tells varied stories of supernatural 
vision associated with the war. 

The Door in the Wall, by H. G. Wells, depicts a man who in 
his dreamy childhood wanders into a secret garden where 
he is shown the book oi his past and future, but who 
afterguards is unable to find the door by which he enters, 
though he seeks it often. Later in life, at several times 
when he is in a special haste to reach some place for an 
important appointment, he sees the door, but does not 
enter. Finally he goes in to his death. This is an instance 
of the suggestive supernaturaUsm associated with dreams 
and visions. 

The use of mirrors in supernatural \ision is significant 
and appears in a number of ways in modem fiction. 
Scott's My Aunt Margaret's Mirror is an early instance, 
where the magician shows the seeker a glass wherein she 
sees what is taking place in another country, sees her 
husband on his svay to the altar with another woman, sees 
a stranger stop the marriage, and witnesses the fatal duel. 
Ha^lhorne has used mirrors extensively as s^'mbolic of 
an inner vision, of a look into the reaHties of the soul. For 
instance, when poor Feathertop, the make-believe man, 
the animated scarecrow, looks into the mirror he sees 
not the brave figure the world beholds in him, but the 
thing of sticks and straw, the sham that he is, as the 
minister shrinks from the mirrored reflection of the black 
veil, symbol of myster}^ that he wears. Hawi:home else- 
where speaks of Echo as the voice of the reflection in a 
mirror, and says that our reflections are ghosts of our- 
selves. Mr. Titbottom, in George William Curtis' s Priie 
and I, who has the power of seeing into the souls of human 
beings by means of his magic spectacles and catching 
symbolic glimpses of what they are instead of what they 
appear to be, beholds himself in a mirror and shrinks back 
aghast from the revelation of his own nature. Barry 



Supernatural Science 259 

Pain's story, referred to in another connection, shows a 
mirror wherein a supernatural visitant reveals to a young 
man the supreme moments of life, his own and those of 
others, pictures of the highest moments of ecstasy or 
despair, of fulfillment of dear dreams. 

The Silver Mirror, by A. Conan Doyle, represents a 
man alone night after night, working with overstrained 
nerves on a set of books, who sees in an antique mirror a 
strange scene re-enacted and finds later that the glass has 
once belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots, and that he has 
seen the murder of Rizzio. Brander Matthews also has 
a story concerned with re-created images in an old mirror. 
The looking-glass in fiction seems to be not only a sort of 
hand conscience, as Markheim calls it, but a betrayer of 
secrets, a revealer of the forgotten past, a prophet of the 
future as well. It is also a strange symbol to show hearts 
as they are in reality, reflecting the soul rather than the 
body. It is employed in diverse ways and is an effective 
means of supernatural suggestion, of ghostly power. 

The Fourth Dimension is another motif that seems to 
interest the writers of recent ghostly tales. They make 
use of it in various ways and seem to have different ideas 
concerning it, but they like, to play with the thought and 
twist it to their whim. Ambrose Bierce has a collection 
of stories dealing with mysterious disappearances, in 
which he tells of persons who are transferred from the 
known, calculable space to some "non-Euclidean space" 
where they are lost. In some strange pockets of nowhere 
they fall, unable to see or to be seen, to hear or to be 
heard, neither living nor dying, since "in that space is 
no power of life or of death." It is all very mysterious 
and uncanny. He uses the theme as the basis for a 
number of short stories of ghostly power, which offer no 
solution but leave the mystery in the air. In some of 
these stories Bierce represents the person as crying out, 



26o Supernatural Science 

and being heard, but no help can go, because he is in- 
visible and intangible, not knowing where he is nor what 
has happened to him. H. G. Wells, in The Plattner Case, 
which shows an obvious influence of Bierce, gives a similar 
case. He explains the extraordinary happenings by 
advancing the theory that Plattner has changed sides. 
According to mathematics, he says, we are told that the 
only way in which the right and left sides of a solid body 
can be changed is by taking that body clean out of space 
as we know it, out of ordinar}^ existence, that is, and 
turning it somewhere outside space. Plattner has been 
moved out into the Fourth Dimension and been returned 
to the world with a curious inversion of body. He is 
absent from the w^orld for nine days and has extraordinary 
experiences in the Other- World. This happens through 
an explosion in the laboratory where he is working, simi- 
larl}^ to Wells's story of Davidson, where the infringement 
on the Fourth Dimension is the result of a lightning stroke. 
Mary Wilkins Freem.an deals with the Fourth Dimen- 
sion in The Hall Bedroom, where the boarder drifts off 
into unknown space, never to return, from gazing at a 
picture on the wall, as has happened in the case of pre- 
vious occupants of the room. Richard Middleton employs 
the same idea in a story of a conjurer who nightly plays a 
trick in public, causing his wife to seem to disappear into 
space. One night she actually does so vanish, never to be 
seen again. Other instances of the form may be found 
in recent fiction. H. G. Wells uses the theme with a dif- 
ferent twist in his Time Machine. Here the scientist 
insists that time is the Fourth Dimension, that persons 
who talk of the matter ordinarily have no idea of what it is, 
but that he has solved it. He constructs a machine which 
enables him to project himself into the future or into the 
past, and sees what will happen or what has happened 
in other centuries. He lives years in the space of a few 



Supernatural Science 261 

moments and has amazing adventures on his temporal 
expeditions. But finally the Fourth Dimension, which 
may be thought of as a terrible Fate or inescapable destiny 
awaiting all who dally with it, gets him too, for he fails 
to return from one of his trips. Another story tells of a 
man who by drinking quantities of green tea could 
project himself into the Fourth Dimension. 

A number of stories of scientific supernaturalism are 
concerned with glimpses into the future. The Time 
Machine, just mentioned, with its invasions of the im- 
known space and time, its trips into eternity by the 
agency of a miraculous vehicle, illustrates the method. 
The scientist finds that he can travel backwards or for- 
wards, accelerating or retarding his speed as he will, and 
get a section of life in any age he wishes. He discovers 
that in the future which he visits many reforms have been 
inaugurated, preventive medicine established, noxious 
weeds eradicated, and yet strange conditions exist. 
Mankind has undergone a two-fold involution, the soft 
conditions of life having caused the higher classes to 
degenerate into flabby beings of no strength, while an 
underground race has grown up of horrible depraved 
nature, blind from living in subterranean passages, canni- 
balistic while the others are vegetarian. The lower classes 
are like hideous apes, while the higher are effeminate, 
relaxed. The traveler escapes a dire fate onl}^ by rushing 
to his machine and returning to his own time. Samuel 
Butler suggests that machines will be the real rulers in the 
coming ages, that man will be preserved only to feed and 
care for the machines which will have attained super- 
natural sensibility and power. He says that mechanisms 
will acquire feelings and tastes and culture, and that man 
will be the servant of steel and steam in the future, instead 
of master as now; that engines will wed and rear families 
which men, as slaves, must wait upon. 



262 Supernatural Science 

Frank R. Stockton' gives another supernatural scien- 
tific glimpse into the future, showing as impossibilities 
certain things that have since come to pass, while some 
of the changes prophesied as imminent are yet unrealized 
and apparently far from actualities. Jack London's 
Scarlet Plague pictures the earth returned to barbarism, 
since most of the inhabitants have been swept away by 
a scourge and the others have failed to carry on the torch 
of civilization. H. G. Wells ^ gives account of a tour into 
futurity, wherein the miracles of modern science work 
revolutions in human life, and^ he satirizes society, 
showing a topsy-tlirvy state of affairs in a.d. 2 too. His 
Dream of Armageddon is a story of futurity wherein a man 
has continuous visions of what his experiences will be in 
another life far in the future. That life becomes more 
real to him than his actual existence, and he grows in- 
different to events taking place around him while rent 
with emotion over the griefs to come in another age. 
Of course, Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, with its 
social and mechanistic miracles that now seem flat and 
tame to us, might be said to be the father of most of 
these modern prophecies of scientific futurity. Samuel 
Butler's Erewhon contains m.any elements of impossibility 
in relation to life, and is a satire on society, though perhaps 
not, strictly speaking, supernatural. These prophecies 
of the time to come are in the main intended as social 
satires, as symbolic analyses of the weaknesses of 
present life. They evince vivid imagination and much 
ingenuity in contriving the mechanisms that are to 
transform life, yet they are not examples of great fiction. 
Mark Twain reverses the type in his Connecticut Yankee 
at King Arthur s Court, for he shows a man of the present 
taking part in the life of the far past, managing to parody 

' In The Great Stone of Sardis. 

' In A Story of Days to Come. ^ In When the Sleeper Wakes. 



Supernatural Science 263 

both medisevalism and the Yankee character at once. 
H. G. Wells is particularly interested in studying the 
unused forces of the world and fancying what would 
happen under other conditions. His play of scientific 
speculation has produced many stories that he does not 
greatly value now himself, but which are of interest as 
showing certain tendencies of fiction. 

Views of other planets form a feature of modern super- 
naturalism, for the writer now sets his stories not only on 
earth, in heaven, and in hell but on other worlds besides. 
The astrologer of ancient fiction, with his eye fixed ever 
on the stars, seeking to discern their influence on human 
destiny, appears no more among us. He has been re- 
placed by the astronomer who scans the stars yet with a 
different purpose in fiction. He wishes to find out the 
life of citizens of other planets rather than to figure out 
the fate of mortals on the earth. Many stories of modem 
times cause new planets to swim into our literary ken and 
describe their citizens with ease. H. G. Wells stars here as 
elsewhere. In his War of the Worlds he depicts a struggle 
between the earth people and the Martians, in which 
many supernatural elements enter. The people of Mars 
are a repulsive horde of creatures, yet they have wonderful 
organization and command of resources, and they conquer 
the earth to prey upon it. This book has suffered the 
inevitable parody. ' In The Crystal Egg, Wells describes 
a curious globe in which the gazer can see scenes reflected 
from Mars. The author suggests two theories as to the 
possibility of this, — either that the crystal is in both 
worlds at once, remaining stationary in one and moving 
in the other, and that it reflects scenes in Mars so that 
they are visible on earth, or else that by a peculiar sym- 
pathy with a companion globe on the other planet it shows 

' In The War of the Wenuses, by C. L. Graves and E. V. Lucas. 



264 Supernatural Science 

on its surface what happens in the other world. It is 
hinted that the Martians have sent the crystal to the earth 
in order that they might catch glimpses of our life. 

In The Star, Wells gives yet another story of the future, 
of other planetary influences. By the passing of a strange 
star, life on earth is convulsed and conditions radically 
changed. These conditions are observed by the astrono- 
mers on Mars, who are beings different from men, yet 
very intelligent. They draw conclusions as to the amount 
of damage done to the earth, satirizing human theories 
as to Mars. The Days of the Comet shows earthly life 
changed by the passing of a comet, but instead of the 
destruction described in the other story, the social condi- 
tions are vastly improved and a millennium is ushered in. 
Wells' makes a voyage to the moon possible by the dis- 
covery of a substance which resists gravity. Other in- 
stances might be given, for there has been no lack of 
lunar literature, but they are not usually worth much. 

Du Manner's The Martian, which combines the ele- 
ments of metempsychosis, automatic writing, and dream- 
supematuralism, with the idea of ghostly astronomy, 
tells of a supernatural visitant from Mars. The Mar- 
tian is a young woman whose spirit comes to inhabit a 
young man to whom she dictates wonderful books in his 
dreams. She writes letters to him in a sort of private 
code, in which she tells of her previous incarnations on 
Mars, of the Martians who are extraordinary amphibious 
beings, descended from a small sea animal. They have 
unusual acuteness of senses with an added sixth sense, a 
sort of orientation, a feeling of a magnetic current, which 
she imparts to her protege, Barty Joscelyn. Jack 
London^ tells a story of interplanetary metempsychosis, 
where the central character, a prisoner in San Quentin, 
finds himself able to will his body to die at times, thus 
' In The First Men in the Moon, ' In The Star Rover. 



Supernatural Science 265 

releasing his spirit to fly through space and relive its 
experiences in previous incarnations. 

Barry Pain's The Celestial Grocery is a phantasy of 
insanity and the supernatural, with its setting on two 
planets. It contains a cab horse that talks and laughs, 
and other inversions of the natural. A man is taken on a 
journey to another world, sees the stars and the earth in 
space beneath him, and finds everything different from 
what he has known before. People there have two bodies 
and send them alternately to the wash, though they 
seldom wear them. The celestial shop sells nothing 
concrete, only abstractions, emotions, experiences. One 
may buy measures of love, requited or unselfishly hopeless, 
of political success, of literary fame, or of power or what- 
not. Happiness is a blend, however, for which one must 
mix the ingredients for himself. The story is symbolic 
of the ideals of earth, with a sad, effective satire. The 
end is insanity, leaving one wondering how much of it is 
pure phantasy of a mad man's brain or how much actual- 
ity. It is reminiscent of Hawthorne's Intelligence Office 
with its symbolic super naturalism. 

Hypnotism enters largely into the fiction of modern 
times. Hypnotism may or may not be considered as 
supernatural, yet it borders so closely on to the realm 
of the uncanny, and is so related to science of to-day as 
well as to the sorcery of the past, that it should be con- 
sidered in this connection for it carries on the traditions 
of the supernatural. In its earlier stages hypnotism was 
considered as distinctly diabolic, used only for unlawful 
purposes, being associated with witchcraft. It is only in 
more recent times that it has been rehabilitated in the 
public mind and thought of as a science which may be 
used for helpful ends. It is so mysterious in its power that 
it affords complications in plenty for the novelist and has 



266 Supernatural Science 

been utilized in various ways. In some cases, as F. 
Marion Crawford's The Witch of Prague, it is associated 
still with evil power and held as a black art. Unoma has 
an unearthly power gained through hypnotism which is 
more than hypnotic, and which she uses to further her 
own ends. Strange scientific ideas of life and of death 
are seen here, and someone says of her : ' ' You would make a 
living mummy of a man. I should expect to find him 
with his head cut off and living by means of a glass heart 
and thinking through a rabbit's brain." She embalms an 
old man in a continuous hypnotic lethargy, recalling him 
only at intervals to do mechanically the things necessary 
to prolong life. She is trying to see if she can cause human 
tissue to live forever in this embalmed state, hoping to 
learn through it the secret of eternal life. This, of course, 
suggests Poe's stories of the subject, Mesmeric Revelations 
and The Facts in the Case of M. Waldemar. The latter is one 
of the most revolting instances of scientific supernatural- 
ism, for the dying man is mesmerized in the moment of 
death and remains in that condition, dead, yet undecaying, 
and speaking, repeating with his horrible tongue the state- 
ment, "I am dead." After seven months, further experi- 
ments break the spell, and he, pleading to be allowed to be 
at peace in death, falls suddenly away into a loathsome, 
liquid putrescence before the eyes of the experimenters. 

The Portent, by George MacDonald, is a curious study of 
hypnotic influence, of a woman who is her true self only 
when in a somnambulistic state. A supernatural connec- 
tion of soul exists between her and a youth bom on the 
same day, and it is only through his hypnotic aid that she 
gains her personality and sanity. James L. Ford plays 
with the subject by having a group of persons in an evening 
party submit themselves to be hypnotized in turn, each 
telling a true story of his life while in that condition. 
W. D. Howells combines mesmerism with spiritualism 



Supernatural Science 267 

in his novel, ^ where the seances are really the result of 
hypnotism rather than supernatural revelation as the 
medium thinks. H. G. Wells has used this theme, as 
almost every other form of scientific ghostliness, though 
without marked success. The prize story of hypnotism, 
however, still remains Du Manner's Trilby, for no mes- 
merist in this fiction has been able to outdo Svengali. 

Uncanny chemistry forms the ingredient for many a 
modern story. The alchemist was the favored feature of 
the older supernatural fiction of science, and his efforts 
to discover the philosopher's stone and to brew the magic 
elixir have furnished plots for divers stories. He does not 
often waste his time in these vain endeavors in recent 
stories, though his efforts have not altogether ceased, as 
we have seen in a previous chapter. A. Conan Doyle ^ is 
among the last to treat the theme, and makes the scientist 
find his efforts worse than useless, for the research student 
finds that his discovery of the art of making gold is dis- 
turbing the nice balance of nature and bringing injury to 
those he meant to help, so he destroys his secret formula 
and dies. The Elixir of Youth illustrates the transference 
of power from the sorcerer to the scientist, for the magician 
that gives the stranger a potion to restore his youth tells 
him that he is not a sorcerer, not a diabolic agent, but a 
scientist learning to utilize the forces that are at the 
command of any intelligence. 

Barry Pain's The Love Philter is related both to the old 
and the new types of supernatural chemistry. A man 
loves a woman who doesn't care, so he asks aid of a wise 
woman, who gives him a potion that will surely win the 
stubborn heart. As he lies asleep in the desert, on his way 
back, he dreams that his love says to him that love gained 

^ The Undiscovered Country. 

' In The Doings of Raffles Haw. 



268 Supernatural Science 

by such means is not love, so he pours the liquid on the 
sand. When he returns, the woman tells him that she has 
been with him in his dreams and loves him because he 
would not claim her wrongly. Blue Roses is another of his 
stories of magic that bring love to the indifferent. Twilight, 
by Frank Danby, is a novel based on the relation between 
morphia and the supernatural. A woman ill of nervous 
trouble, under the influence of opiates, continually sees the 
spirit of a woman dead for years, who relives her story 
before her eyes, so that the personalities are curiously 
merged. This inevitably suggests De Quincey's Con- 
fessions of an English Opium-Eater with its dream- 
wonders, yet it has a power of its own and the skillful 
blending of reality with dream-supernaturalism and 
insanity has an uncanny distinction. 

Fu-Manchu, the Chinese wonder-worker in Sax Roh- 
mer's series of stories bearing that name, is a represen- 
tative example of the modern use of chemistry for 
supernormal effect. He employs all the forces of up-to- 
the-minute science to compass his diabolic ends and 
works miracles of chemistry by seemingly natural methods. 
By a hypodermic injection he can instantly drive a man 
to acute insanity incurable save by a counter -injection 
which only Fu-Manchu can give, but which as instantly 
restores the reason. By another needle he can cause a 
person to die — to all intents and purposes, at least, — 
and after the body has been buried for days he can restore 
it to life by another prick of the needle. He terrorizes 
England by his infernal powers, killing off or converting 
to slavery the leading intelligences that oppose him. 

Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is perhaps the 
best-known instance of chemical supernaturalism. Here 
the magic drug not only changes the bod}^ evolving from 
the respectable Dr. Jelcyll his baser self in the form of Mr. 
Hyde, enabling him to give rein to his criminal instincts 



Supernatural Science 269 

without bringing reproach on his reputation, but has the 
subtle power to fix the personaHty of evil, so that each 
time the drug is used H^^de is given a stronger force and 
Jekyll is weakened. This fictive sermon on dual nature, 
the ascendence ot evil over the nobler soul if it be indulged, 
seems yet an appallingly real story of human life. In a 
similar fashion Arthur Machen uses supernatural chemistry 
most hideously in The Three Impostors, where a certain 
powder perverts the soul, making man a sharer in the 
unspeakable orgies of ancient evil forces. 

The Invisible Man, by H. G. Wells, shows an unusual 
application of chemistry to ghostly fiction that gives a 
peculiar effect of reality because its style is that of scien- 
tific realism. By experimentation with drugs a man finds 
a combination that will render living tissue absolutely 
invisible. When he swallows a portion of it, he cannot 
be seen. His clothes appear to be walking around by 
themselves and the complications are uncanny. As one 
may see, the comic possibilities are prominent and for a 
time we laugh over the myvStification of the persons with 
whom he comes in contact, but soon vStark tragedy results. 
During the man-chase, as the hunted creature seeks to 
escape, the people hear the thud- thud of running steps, 
watch bloody footprints form before their eyes, yet see 
nothing else. Here is a genuine thrill that is new in fiction. 
The man gradually becomes visible, but only in death is 
his dreadful figure seen completely again. This modern 
method of transferring to science the idea of invisibility 
so prominent in connection with ghosts, showing the 
invisibility as the result of a chemical compound, not of 
supernatural intervention, affecting a living man not a 
spirit, makes the effect of supernaturalism more vivid 
even than in the case of ghosts. 

These are only suggestions of the varied uses to which 
chemistry has been put in producing ghostly plots and 



270 Supernatural Science 

utilizing in novel ways the conventional motifs of older 
stories. These themes are more popular now than they 
would have been half a centtiry ago because now the 
average reader knows more about scientific facts and is 
better prepared to appreciate them. A man ignorant of 
chemistry would care nothing for the throes of Dr. Jelcyll 
or the complicating experiences of the invisible man, 
because he would have slight basis for his imagination to 
build upon. Each widening of the popular intelligence 
and each branch of science added to the mental store of 
the ordinary reader is a distinct gain to fiction. 

Supernatural biolog}^ looms large in modern fiction, 
though it is not always easy to differentiate between the 
predominance of chemical and biological motifs. In 
many cases the two are tangled up together, and as, in the 
stories of dual personality and invisibility just mentioned, 
one may not readily say which is uppermost, the biological 
or the chemical side, for the experiments are of the effects 
of certain drugs upon living human tissue. There are 
various similar instances in the fiction of scientific super- 
naturalism. Hawthorne's The Birthmark is a case of 
chemical biology, where the husband seeking to remove 
by pow^erful drugs the mark from his wife's cheek succeeds 
in doing so but causes her death. Here the supernatural- 
ism is symbolic, suggested rather than boldly stated, as is 
usually the case with Hawthorne's w^ork. 

A. Conan Doyle in The Los Amigos Fiasco shows super- 
naturalism based on the effect of electricity on the body, 
for the lynchers in trying to kill a man by connecting him 
with a dynamo succeed in so magnetizing him that he 
can't be killed in any way. Sax Rohmer tells one Fu- 
Manchu story of a mysterious murder committed by 
means of an imprisoned gas that escapes from a mummy 
case and poisons those exposed to it, and, in another, he 



Supernatural Science 271 

introduces a diabolic red insect attracted by the scent of 
a poisonous orchid, that bites the marked victim. 

Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau is a ghastly study in 
vivisection. Two scientists on a remote island with no 
other human inhabitants try unspeakable experiments on 
animals, trying by pruning and grafting and training the 
living tissue to make them human. They do succeed in a 
measure, for they teach the beasts to talk and to observe 
a sort of jungle law laid down by man, yet the effect is 
sickening. The animals are not human and never can be, 
and these revolting experiments deprive them of all 
animal dignity without adding any of the human. In the 
end they revert to savagery, becoming even more bestial 
than before. The most dreadful biological experiments 
in recent fiction are described in Arthur Machen's volume 
of short stories. The House of Souls. In one story an 
operation on the brain enables a victim to "see the great 
god Pan," to have revelations of ancient supernaturalism 
wherein Pan and the devil are united in one character. 
In another, a delicate cutting of the brain removes the 
soul, — which takes the form of a wonderful jewel, — and 
utterly diabolizes the character. These curious and 
revolting stories are advanced instances of scientific 
diabolism and leave a smear on the mind. They are more 
horrible than the creation of Frankenstein's man-monster, 
for here moral monsters are evolved. 

Medicated supernaturalism associated with prenatal 
influence occurs in various stories where a supernormal 
twist is given because of some event out of the ordinary. 
Ambrose Bierce's The Eyes of the Panther, a story of a 
young woman who is a panther for part of the time as a 
result of a shock, is associated with the snake nature of 
Elsie Venner. Barry Pain's The Undying Thing is one of 
the most horrible of such complications, for because of a 
mother's fright over a pack of wolves a monster is born, 



272 Supernatural Science 

neither wolf nor human, neither animal nor man, neither 
mortal nor immortal. It is hidden in a secret cave to die, 
yet lives on, though not living, to fulfil a curse upon the 
ancient house. A. Conan Doyle's The Terror of Blue 
John Gap is a story of a monstrous animal, like a bear yet 
bigger than an elephant, that ravages the countryside. 
The theory for its being is that it is a survival, in a sub- 
terranean cave, of a long-extinct type, from prehistoric 
times, that comes out in its blindness to destroy. There 
are other examples of supernormal animals in modern 
fiction, yet these sufiice to illustrate the genre. 

Botany furnishes its ghostly plots in fiction as well as 
other branches of science, for we have plant vampires and 
witches and devils. Trees and flowers are highly psychic 
and run a gamut of emotions. Hawthorne shows us 
supernatural plants in several of his novels and stories, 
such as the mysterious plant growing from a secret grave, 
which has a strange poisonous power, or the flowers from 
Gaffer Dolliver's garden that shine like jewels and lend a 
glow to the living face near them, when worn on a woman's 
breast. In Rappaccini's Daughter the garden is full of 
flowers of subtle poison, so insidious that their venom has 
entered into the life of the young girl, rendering her a living 
menace to those around her. She is the victim of her 
father's daemonic experiments in the effects of poison on the 
human body, and her kiss means death. Algernon Black- 
wood' tells of the uncanny power of motion and emotion 
possessed by the trees, where the forest exercises a mag- 
netic force upon human beings sympathetic to them, going 
out after men and luring them to their fate. He describes 
the cedar as friendly to man and attempting but in vain to 
protect him from the creeping malignant power of the forest. 

Fu-Manchu, Sax Rohmer's Chinese horror, performs 

' In The Man whom the Trees Loved. 



Supernatural Science 273 

various experiments in botany to further his dreadful ends. 
He develops a species of poisonous fungi till they become 
giant in size and acquire certain powers through being 
kept in the darkness. When a light is turned on them, the 
fungi explode, turning loose, on the men he would murder, 
fumes that drive them mad. From the ceiling above are 
released ripe spores of the giant Empusa, for the air in the 
second cellar, being surcharged with oxygen, makes them 
germinate instantly. They fall like powdered snow upon 
the victims and the horrible fungi grow magically, spread- 
ing over the writhing bodies of the mad-men and wrapping 
them in ghostly shrouds. In The Flower of Silence he 
describes a strange orchid that has the uncanny habit of 
stinging or biting when it is broken or roughly handled, 
sending forth a poison that first makes a man deaf then 
kills him. Fu-Manchu introduces this flower into the 
sleeping-rooms of those he wishes to put out of the way, 
and sends them into eternal silence. The Flowering of the 
Strange Orchid, by H. G. Wells, is the story of a murderous 
plant, a vampire that kills men in the jungle, and in a 
greenhouse in England sends out its tentacles that grip 
the botanist, drinking his blood and seeking to slay him. 
This orchid has the power to project its vampiric attacks 
when it is a shriveled bulb or in the flower. This reminds 
us of Algernon Blackwood's story of the vampire soil, 
which after its psychic orgy burst into loathsome 
luxuriant bloom where before it had been barren. 

It is a curious heightening of supernatural effect to 
give to beautiful flowers diabolical cunning and murderous 
motives, to endow them with human psychology and 
devilish designs. The magic associated with botany is 
usually black instead of white. One wonders if trans- 
migration of soul does not enter subconsciously into these 
plots, and if a vampire orchid is not a trailing off of a 
human soul, the murderous blossom a revenge ghost 
18 



274 Supernatural Science 

expressing himself in that way. The plots in this type of 
fiction are wrought with much imagination and the 
scientific exactness combined with the supernatural gives 
a peculiar effect of reality. 

There are varied forms of supernatural science that do 
not come under any of the heads discussed. The applica- 
tions of research to weird fiction are as diverse as the 
phases of investigation and only a few may be mentioned 
to suggest the variety of themes employed. Inversion of 
natural laws furnishes plots, — as in Frank R. Stockton's 
Tale of Negatiie Gravity with its discovery of a substance 
that enables a man to save himself all fatigue b}^ means of 
a something that inverts the law of gravit}^ With a little 
package in his pocket a man can climb mountains without 
effort, but the discoverer miscalculates the amount of 
energy required to move and finally rises instead of staying 
on the earth, till his wife has to fish him into the second- 
story window. Poe's Loss of Breath illustrates another 
infringement of a natural law, as do several stories where 
a human being loses his shadow. 

In The Diamond Lens, Fitz- James O'Brien tells of a 
man who looking at a drop of water through a giant 
microscope sees in the drop a lovely woman with whom he 
falls madly in love, only to watch her fade away under the 
lens as his despairing eyes see the water evaporate. 
Supernatural acoustics enters' in the story of a man who 
discovers the sound-center in an opera house and reads 
the unspoken thoughts of those around him. He applies 
the laws of acoustics to mentality and spirituality, 
making astounding discoveries. Bram Stoker combines 
superstition with modern science in his books, as'' where 
Oriental magic is used to fight the encroachments of an 

' In The Spider's Eye, by Lucretia P. Hale. 
" In The Jewel of Seven Stars. 



Supernatural Science 275 

evil force emanating from a mummy, as also to bring the 
mummy to life, while a respirator is employed to keep 
away the subtle odor. He brings in blood transfusion 
together with superstitious symbols, to combat the 
ravages of vampires. ' Blood transfusion also enters into 
supernaturalism in Stephen French Whitney's story, 
where a woman who has been buried in a glacier for two 
thousand years is recalled to life. 

The Human Chord, by Algernon Blackwood, is a novel 
based on the psychic values of sounds, which claims that 
sounds are all powerful, are everything, — for forms, shapes, 
bodies are but vibratory activities of sound made visible. 
The research worker here believes that he who has the 
power to call a thing by its proper name is master of that 
thing, or of that person, and that to be able to call the 
name of Deity would be to enable one to become as God. 
He seeks to bring together a human chord, four persons 
in harmony as to voice and soul, who can pronounce the 
awful name and become divine with him. He can change 
the form or the nature of anything by calling its name, as a 
woman is deformed by mispronunciation, and the walls 
of a room expanded by his voice. He can make of himself 
a dwarf or a giant at will, by different methods of speak- 
ing his own name. He says that sound could re-create or 
destroy the universe. He has captured sounds that strain 
at their leashes in his secret rooms, gigantic, wonderful. 
But in the effort to call upon the mighty Name he mis- 
pronounces it, bringing a terrible convulsion of nature 
which destroys him. The beholders see an awful fire in 
which Letters escape back to heaven in chariots of flame. 

Psychology furnishes some interesting contributions 
to recent fiction along the line of what might be called 
momentary or instantaneous plots. Ambrose Bierce's 
The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a good example, — 

' In Dracula. 



276 Supernatural Science 

where a man is being hanged and in the instant between 
the drop from the bridge and the breaking of the neck he 
lives through long and dramatic adventures, escaping 
his pursuers by falling into the river and swimming ashore, 
reaching home at last to greet his wife and children. 
Yet in a second his lifeless body swings from the bridge. 
The Warning, by Josephine Daskam Bacon, shows the 
case of a man who lives year's in another country during a 
few moments of acute mental strain carried to the point of 
paranoia. Barry Pain has a story where in the time in 
which a man drives home from the theater he visits another 
planet and changes the current of his life, while Algernon 
Blackwood compresses a great experience into a few 
minutes of dreaming. 

One noteworthy point in connection with the scientific 
supernaturalism is that these themes appear only in 
novels and short stories. They do not cross over into 
poetry as do most of the other forms of the ghostly art. 
Perhaps this is because the situations are intellectual 
rather than emotional, brain-problems or studies in 
mechanisms rather than in feelings or emotions. The 
province of science is removed from that of poetry because 
the methods and purposes are altogether different. The 
scientific methods are clear-cut, coldly intellectual. 
Science demands an exactness, a meticulous accuracy 
hostile to poetry which requires suggestion, vagueness, 
veiled mystery for its greatest effect. The Flower of 
Silence, for instance, would be a fitting title for a poem, 
but the poetic effect would be destroyed by the need for 
stating the genus and species of the orchid and analyzing 
its destruction of human tissue. Nature's mysterious 
forces and elements in general and vaguely considered, 
veiled in mists of imagination and with a sense of vastness 
and beauty, are extremely poetic. But the notebook and 
laboratory methods of pure science are antagonistic to 



Supernatural Science 277 

poetry, though they fit admirably into the requirements of 
fiction, whose purpose is to give an impression of actuahty. 

Another reason why these scientific themes do not pass 
over into poetry may be that scientific methods as we 
know them are new, and poetry cHngs to the old and 
established conventions and emotions. There is amazing 
human interest in these experiments, a veritable wealth 
of romance, with dramatic possibilities tragic and comic, 
yet they are more suited to prose fiction than to poetry. 
We have adapted our brain-cells to their concepts in prose, 
yet we have not thus molded our poetic ideas. It gives 
us a shock to have new concepts introduced into poetry. 
An instance of this clash of realism with sentiment is 
shown in a recent poem where the setting is a physics 
laboratory. Yet in a few more decades we may find the 
poets eagerly converting the raw materials of science into 
the essence of poetry itself, and by a mystic alchemy more 
wonderful than any yet known, transmuting intellectual 
problems of science into magic verse. Creation, by Alfred 
Noyes, is an impressive discussion of evolution as related 
to God. 

Perhaps another reason why these themes have not 
been utilized in poetry is because they are too fantastic, 
too bizarre. They lack the proportion and sense of artistic 
harmony that poetry requires. Strangeness and wonder 
are true elements of poetry, and magic is an element of the 
greatest art, but in solution as it were, not in the form 
observed in science. The miracles of the laboratory are 
too abrupt, too inconceivable save by intellectual analysis, 
and present too great a strain upon the powers of the 
imagination. They are fantastic, while true poetry is 
concerned with the fancy. Magic and wonder in verse 
must come from concepts that steal upon the imagination 
and make appeal through the emotions. Thus some forms 
of supernaturalism are admirably adapted to the province 



278 Supernatural Science 

of poetry, such as the presence of spirits, visitations of 
angels or demons, ancient witchcraft, and so forth. The 
elements that have universal appeal through the sense of 
the supernatural move us in poetry, but the isolated 
instances, the peculiar problems that occur in scientific 
research if transferred to poetry would leave us cold. 
Yet they may come to be used in the next vers lihre. 

Nor do these situations come over into the drama save 
in rare instances. Theodore Dreiser, in a recent volume, 
Plays of the Natural and the Supernatural, makes use of 
certain motifs that are striking and modem, as' where 
a physician goes on the operating-table, the dramatis 
personcB including Demyaphon (Nitrous Acid), and 
Alcepheron (a Power of Physics), as well as several 
Shadows, mysterious personages of vagueness. These 
Shadows here, as in The Blue Sphere, are not altogether 
clear as to motivation, yet they seem to stand for Fate 
interference in human destiny. In the latter play Fate 
is also represented by a Fast Mail which is one of the 
active characters, menacing and destroying a child. 

One reason why these motifs of science are not used 
in drama to any extent is that they are impossible of 
representation on the stage. Even the wizardry of modem 
producers would be unable to show a Power of Physics, 
or Nitrous Acid, save as they might be embodied, as were 
the symbolic characters in Maeterlinck's Blue Bird, which 
would mean that they would lose their effect. And what 
would a stage manager do with the rhythm of the universe, 
which enters into Dreiser's play? Many sounds can be 
managed off stage, but hardly that, one fancies. These 
themes are not even found in closet drama, where many 
other elements of supernaturalism which would be difficult 
or impossible of presentation on the stage trail off. Wil- 
liam Sharp's Vistas, for instance, could not be shown on 

* In Laughing Gas. 



Supernatural Science 279 

the stage, yet the httle plays in that volume are of wonder- 
ful dramatic power. The drama can stand a good deal of 
supernaturalism of various kinds, from the visible ghosts 
and devils of the Elizabethans to the atmospheric super- 
naturalism of Maeterlinck, but it could scarcely support 
the presentations of chemicals and gases and supernatural 
botany and biology that fiction handles with ease. The 
miraculous machinery would balk at stage action. Fancy 
the Time Machine staged, for instance! 

We notice in these scientific stories a widening of the 
sphere of supernatural fiction. It is extended to include 
more of the normal interests and activities of man than 
has formerly been the case. Here we notice a spirit 
similar to that of the leveling influence seen in the 
case of the ghosts, devils, witches, angels, and so forth, 
who have been made more human not only in appear- 
ance but in emotions and activities as well. Likewise these 
scientific elements have been elevated to the human. 
Supernatural as well as human attributes have been 
extended to material things, as animals are given super- 
normal powers in a sense different from and yet similar 
to those possessed by the enchanted animals in folk-lore. 
Science has its physical as well as psychic horrors which 
the scientific ghostly tales bring in. 

Not only are animals gifted with supernatural powers 
but plants as well are humanized, diabolized. We have 
strange murderous trees, vampire orchids, flowers that 
slay men in secret ways with all the smiling loveliness of a 
treacherous woman. The dasmonics of modern botany 
form an interesting phase of ghostly fiction and give a 
new thrill to supernaturalivSm. Inanimate, concrete things 
are endowed with unearthly cunning and strength, as well 
as animals and plants. The new type of fiction gives to 
chemicals and gases a hellish intelligence, a diabolic force 
of minds. It creates machinery and gives it an excess of 



28o Supernatural Science 

force, a supernatural, more than human cunning, some- 
times helpful, sometimes daemonic. Machines have been 
spiritualized and some engines are philanthropic while 
some are like damned souls. 

This scientific supernaturalism concerns itself with 
mortal life, not with immortality as do some of the other 
aspects of the genre. It is concrete in its effects, not 
spiritual. Its incursions into futurity are earthly, not of 
heaven or hell, and its problems are of time, not of eter- 
nity. The form shows how clear, cold intelligence plays 
with miracles and applies the supernatural to daily life. 
The enthusiasm, wild and exaggerated in some ways, that 
sprang up over the prospects of what modern science and 
investigation would almost immediately do for the world 
in the latter half of the nineteenth century, had no more 
interesting effect than in the stimulating of scientific 
fictive supernaturalism. And though mankind has 
learned that science will not immediately bring the 
millennium, science still exercises a strong power over 
fiction. This type shows a strange effect of realism in 
supernaturalism, because of the scientific methods, for 
supernaturalism imposed on material things produces an 
effect of verisimilitude not gained in the realm of pure 
spirit. Too intellectually cold for the purposes of poetry, 
too abstract and elusive for presentation in drama, and 
too removed by its association with the fantastic aspects 
of investigation and the curiosities of science to be very 
appropriate for tragedy, which has hitherto been the 
chief medium of expressing the dramatic supernatural, 
science finds its fitting expression in prose fiction. It is 
an illustration of the widening range of the supernatural 
in fiction and as such is significant. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Conclusion 

IN the previous chapters I have endeavored to show the 
continuance and persistence of the supernatural in 
EngHsh fiction, as well as in other forms of literature, 
and to give some idea of the variety of its manifestations. 
There has been no period in our history from Beowulf 
to the present when the ghostly was not found in our 
literature. Of course, there have been periods when the 
interest in it waned, yet it has never been wholly absent. 
There is at the present a definite revival of interest in the 
supernatural appearing in the drama, in poetry and in 
fiction, evident to anyone who has carefully studied the 
recent publications and magazines. Within the last 
few years, especially in the last two years, an astonishing 
amount of ghostly material has appeared. Some of these 
stories are of the hoax variety, others are suggestive, alle- 
gorical or symbolic, while others frankly accept the forces 
beyond man's mortal life and human dominion. I 
hesitate to suggest a reason for this sudden rising tide of 
occultism at this particular time, but it seems clear to me 
that the war has had much to do with it. I have found 
a number of supernatural productions directly associated 
with the struggle. Among them might be mentioned 
Katherine Fullerton Gerould's extraordinary, elusive 
story of horror'; The Second Coming, by Frederick Arnold 

' The Eighty-Third. 

281 



282 Conclusion 

Kummer and Henry P. Janes, where Christ walks the 
battlefields on Christmas Eve, pleading with the Kaiser 
to stop the slaughter of men, but in vain, and the carnage 
goes on till Easter, when the Christ stands beside the 
dying Emperor, with the roar of the rioting people heard 
in the streets outside, and softens his heart at last, so 
that he says, ''Lord, I have sinned! Give my people 
peace!"; Kipling's ghost-story,^ with its specters of chil- 
dren slain by the Germans; The Gray Guest, showing 
Napoleon returning to lead the French forces to victory 
in a crisis; Jeanne, the Maid where the spirit of Joan of 
Arc descends upon a young French girl of to-day, enabling 
her to do wonderful things for her countrymen ; War Letters 
from a Living Dead Man, a series of professed psychic 
communications from the other world, by Elsa Barker; 
Real Ghost Stories, a volume containing a number of stories 
by different writers, describing some of the phantoms 
seen by soldiers on the battlefield; and Arthur Machen's 
The Bowmen, a collection of striking fictive instances 
of crowd-supernaturalism associated with the war. The 
last volume affords an interesting glimpse into the 
way in which legends are built up, for it is a con- 
temporary legend in connection with the Angels at 
Mons. Carl Hauptmann has a striking play,^ showing 
the use of war-supernaturalism in the drama. When 
the eyes of the world are turned toward the battlefields 
and death is an ever-present reality, it is natural that 
human thoughts occupy themselves with visions of a life 
after death. Kingdom Come, by Vida Sutton, shows 
the spirits of Russian peasants slain for refusing to fight, 
specters unaware that they are dead. Various martial 
heroes of the past are resurrected to give inspiration in 
battle in recent stories. 

' Swept and Garnished. 

' The Dead Are Singing, in the May, 191 6, Texas Review. 



Conclusion 283 

But whatever be the reason for this revival of the 
ghostly, the fact remains that this is distinctly the day 
for the phantom and his confreres. While romanticism 
is always with us, it appears in different manifestations. 
A few years ago the swashbuckling hero and his adven- 
tures seemed the most striking survival of the earlier 
days of romanticism, but now the weird and the ghostly 
have regained a popularity which they never surpassed 
even in the heyday of Gothic fiction. The slashing 
sword has been displaced by the psychographic pen. 
The crucial struggles now are occult, rather than ad- 
venturous, as before, and while realism in fiction is im- 
mensely popular — never more so than now — it is likely to 
have supernaturalism overlaid upon it, as in De Morgan's 
work, to give a single example. Recent poetry manifests 
the same tendency, and likewise the drama, particularly 
the closet drama and the playlet. While literary history 
shows clearly the continuity of the supernatural, with 
certain rise and fall of interest in it at different periods, 
it is apparent that now there is a more general fondness 
for the form than at any other period in English literature. 
The supernatural is in solution and exists everywhere. 
Recent poetry shows a strong predilection for the un- 
canny, sometimes in the manner of the old ballads, while 
in other instances the ghostly is treated with a spirit of 
critical detachment as in Rupert Brooke's sonnet,' or 
with skepticism as in his sardonic satire on faith. ^ In 
the recent volume of Brooke's collected poems, there are 
about a dozen dealing with the supernatural. Maeter- 
linck expressed the feeling that a spiritual epoch is perhaps 
upon us, as Poe said that we are in the midst of great 
psychal powers. As Francis Thompson says in his 
Hound of Heaven, "Nature, poor step-dame, cannot 

^ Suggested by some of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. 
' In his Heaven. 



284 Conclusion 

slake our drought!" The interest in certain Hnes of 
thought which lead to the writing of supernatural fiction, 
as Spiritualism or folk-lore, or science or psychical re- 
search, may have the reflex action of arousing interest in 
the subjects themselves. But at all events, there is no 
lack of uncanny literature at present. 

One feature of the modern supernatural literature as 
distinguished from that of other periods, is in the matter 
of length. Of course, the ballad and the folk-tale expressed 
the ghostly in brief form, but the epic held the stage 
longer, while in Elizabethan times the drama was the 
preferred form as in the eighteenth century the Gothic 
novel. During the nineteenth century, particularly the 
latter half, the preference was decidedly for the short 
story, while more recently the one-act play has come into 
vogue. But in the last few years the supernatural novel 
seems to be returning to favor, though without displacing 
the shorter forms. Brevity has much to commend it as 
a vehicle for the uncanny. The effect of the ghostly 
may be attained with much more unity in a short story 
or playlet than in a novel or long drama, for in the more 
lengthy form much outside matter is necessarily included. 
The whole plot could scarcely be made up of the un- 
earthly, for that would mean a weakening of power 
through exaggeration, though this is sometimes found 
to be the case, as in several of Bram Stoker's novels. 
Recently the number of novels dealing with supernatural 
themes has noticeably increased, which leads one to believe 
that the occult is transcending even the limitations of 
length and claiming all forms for its own. Now no 
literary type bars the supernatural, which appears in the 
novel as in the story, in the drama as in the playlet, and 
in narrative, dramatic, and lyric poetry. Even the epic 
of the more than mortal has not entirely vanished, as 
the work of Dr. William Cleaver Wilkinson attests, but 



Conclusion 285 

popular taste does not really run to epics nowadays. 
The ghostly is more often seen in the shorter forms, where 
brevity gives a chance for compression and intensity of 
force difficult in longer vehicles. The rise of the one-act 
play in popular favor is significant in this connection. 
The short dramas of Synge, Yeats, Lady Gregory, William 
Sharpe, Gordon Bottomley, and Theodore Dreiser show 
the possibilities of the playlet for weird effect. Maeter- 
linck's plays for marionettes are especially powerful, but 
the work of Lord Dunsany furnishes more peculiar ghost- 
liness than that of any other present dramatist. His jade 
idols, for instance, that wake to terrible life and revenge 
themselves on presumptuous mortals, are a new touch in 
dramatics. Algernon Blackwood is doing more significant 
work in psychic fiction than anyone else, his prose showing 
poetic beauty as well as eerie power. 

Another significant fact to be noted in connection with 
the later ghostly stories as compared with the Gothic is in 
the greater number and variety of materials employed. 
The early religious plays had introduced devils, angels, and 
divinity to a considerable extent, while the Elizabethan 
drama relied for its thrills chiefly on the witch and the 
revenge-ghost. The Gothic romance was strong for the 
ghost, with one or two Wandering Jews, occasional were- 
wolves and lycanthropes, and sporadic satanity, but made 
no use of angels or of divinity. The modern fiction, 
however, gathers up all of these personages and puts them 
into service freely. In addition to these old themes brought 
up to date and varied astonishingly, the new fiction has 
adapted other types. The scientific supernaturalism 
Is practically new — save for the Gothic employment of 
alchemy and astrology — and now all the discoveries and 
investigations of the laboratory are utilized and embued 
with supernaturalism. Diabolic botany, psychological 
chemistry, and supermortal biology appear in recent 



286 Conclusion 

fiction. The countless arts and sciences, acoustics, 
optics, dietetics, and what-not are levied on for plots, 
while astronomy shows us wonders the astrologer never 
dreamed of. The stars knew their place and kept it in 
early romance, but they are given to strange aberration 
and unaccountable conduct in late narration. 

The futuristic fiction gives us return trips into time 
to come, while we may be transported into the far past, as 
with Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee that visits 
King Arthur's Court. The extent to which a homespun 
realist like Mark Twain uses the supernatural is significant. 
No province or small corner of science has failed to furnish 
material for the new ghostly fiction, and even the Fourth 
and Fifth Dimensions are brought in as plot complica- 
tions. Microscopes are bewitched, mirrors are enchanted, 
and science reverses its own laws at will to suit the weird 
demands. 

Another modern material is the mechanistic. This is 
the age of machinery, and even engines are run by ghost- 
power. Examples of the mechanical spook are legion. 
There is the haunted automobile in Harriet Prescott 
SpofTord's story. The Mad Lady, that reproduces through 
its speaking tube the long-dead voice, that runs away 
with its occupants, reliving previous tragic experiences. 
A phantom Ford is an idea combining romanticism with 
realism surely! In connection with this extraordinary 
car is a house that erects itself out of dreams and is 
substantial enough for living purposes. Other specimens 
are John Kendrick Bangs 's enchanted typewriter that 
clicks off psychograms in the dark, between midnight 
and three o'clock in the morning; Frank R. Stockton's 
machine for negativing gravity; Poe's balloon in which 
Hans Pfaal makes his magic trip to the moon; Wells's 
new accelerator that condenses and intensifies vital energy, 
enabling a man to crowd the forces of a week into an hour 



Conclusion 287 

of emergency, as likewise his time machine that permits 
the inventor to project himself into the future or the past 
at will, to spend a week-end in any era. The butterfly 
in Hawthorne's story shows the spiritualization of machin- 
ery as the poor artist of the beautiful conceived it, the 
delicate toy imbibing a magnetism, a spiritual essence 
that gives it life and beauty and power of voluntary mo- 
tion. This etherealized machinery is manifest in modem 
fiction as well as the diabolic constructions that wreck 
and ruin. 

Inanimate objects have a strange power in later fiction 
as Poe's ship that is said in certain seas to increase in size, 
as the trees told of by Algernon Blaclcwood that grow in 
the picture. There are various haunted portraits, as the 
picture of Dorian Grey that bears on its face the lines 
of sin the living face does not show, and whose hands 
are bloodstained when Dorian commits murder; and the 
painting told of in De Morgan's A Likely Story, that 
overhears a quarrel between an artist and his wife, the 
woman wrongly suspecting her husband and leaving him. 
The picture relates the story to a man who has the painting 
photographed and a copy sent to the wife. There is the 
haunted tapestry' that is curiously related to the living 
and to the long dead. 

Another aspect of the later as distinguished from the 
earlier occult literature is the attention paid to ghostly 
children. Youngsters are coming to the front of the 
stage everywhere nowadays, particularly in America, so 
it is but natural that they should demand to be heard 
as well as seen, in supernatural fiction. In the Gothic 
ghosts I found no individualized children, and children 
in groups only twice. In one of James Hogg's short 
novels a vicious man is haunted on his death-bed by the 
specters of little ones dead because of him, but they 

^ In Poe's Metzenger stein. 



288 Conclusion 

are nameless and indistinguishable. In Maturin's The Al- 
bigenses a relentless persecutor, while passing through a 
lonely forest, sees the phantoms of those he has done to 
death, little children and babes at the breast, as well as men 
and women. But here again the}' are not given separable 
character, but are merely group figures, hence do not 
count. 

There is a ghost-child mentioned in Hawthorne's Blithe- 
dale Romance, but it is not until more recent fiction that 
children's ghosts enter personated and individualized. 
The exquisitely shy Httle ones in Kipling's They are 
among the most wonderful of his child-creations, very 
human and lovable. In a war stor\', ' he shows us the 
phantoms of several children whom the Germans have 
killed, natural youngsters with appealing childish attri- 
butes, especially the small boy with his pride in his first 
trousers. Arthur Machen^ teUs of a German soldier who 
has crucified a child against the church door and is driven to 
insanity by the baby spirit. QuiUer-Couch ^ shows the 
specter of a Httle girl that returns at night to do housework 
for the living, visible only as two slender hands, who reminds 
us of the shepherd boy Richard Middleton tells of, who hav- 
ing died because of his drunken father's neglect, comes back 
to help him tend the sheep. Algernon Black^'ood relates 
the stor}' of a little child who has been wont to pray for 
the unquiet ghost of Petavel, a wicked man who haunts 
his house. After the child is dead, the mother sees 
the little boy leading Petavel by the hand, and says, 
"He's leading him into peace and safety. Perhaps that's 
why God took him." 

Richard Middleton' s stor\- of a little ghost-boy^ is 
poignantly pathetic. The little chap comes back to 

' Swept and Garnished. 

' In The Monstrance, another story of the war. 

i In i4 Pair of Hands. * The Passing of Edward. 



Conclusion 289 

play with his grieving sister, making his presence known 
by his gay feet dancing through the bracken, and his 
joyous imitations of an automobile's chug-chug. Mary 
MacMillan speaks of the spirits of little children that are 
"out earlier at night than the older ghosts, you know, 
because they have to go to bed earlier, being so young." 
Two very recent child ghosts are Wee Brown Elsbeth 
whom Frances Hodgson Burnett shows to us, the wraith 
of a little girl pitifully slain centuries ago by her father to 
save her from torture, who comes back to play with a 
living playmate; and the terrible revenge-ghost of the 
child slain by her stepfather, who comes back to cause his 
death, whom Ellen Glasgow describes. 

The spirits of children that never were enter into the 
late stories, as in The Children, by Josephine Daskam Bacon, 
a story of confused paranoia and supernaturalism. A woman 
grieves over the children she never had till they assume 
personality and being for her. They become so real that 
they are finally seen by other children who wish to play 
with them. This reminds us of Thomas Bailey Aldrich's 
imagined child, Miss Mehitabel's son. Algernon Black- 
wood ' shows us a multitude of baby spirits, with reaching 
arms, pattering steps, and lisping voices, spirits of the 
unborn that haunt childless women. The room which 
they enter seems sacred with the potentialities of mother- 
hood, so that a man sleeping there sees his own dead 
mother return to him among the babes. These ghosts 
of little children that never were and never may be are 
like the spirits of the yet to be born children in Maeter- 
linck's dream-drama,^ where, in the Land of the Future, 
the child-souls wait for the angel to summon them to 
life. In these stories associating children with the ghostly 
there is always a tender pathos, a sad beauty that is 
appealing. 

* In Clairvoyance. ' The Blue Bird. 

I P 



290 Conclusion 

The spectral insect or animal is another innovation in 
recent fiction, though there have been occasional cases 
before, as Vergil's Cukx, the story of the ghost of a gnat 
killed thoughtlessly coming back to tell its murderer of 
its sufferings in the insect hades. Robert W. Chambers 
shows us several ghostly insects, a death's head moth that 
is a presager of disaster, and a butterfly that brings a 
murderer to justice, while Frederick Swanson in a story ^ 
makes a spectral insect a minister of fate. The most curd- 
ling example, however, of the entomological supematur- 
alism, is Richard Marsh's novel, The Beetle, a modernized 
version of the ancient superstitions of Eg^'pt, whereby 
a priestess of Isis continues her m^'sterious, horrid life alter- 
nately as a human being and as a beetle. This Hvely 
scarab has mesmeric, magic power over mortals and by 
its sensational shape-shiftiag furnishes complicating terror 
to the plot. 

The dog is frequently the subject of occult fiction, 
more so than an}^ other animal, perhaps because the dog 
seems more nearly himian than any save possibly the 
horse. Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward shows us a 
dog ver\' much at home ia heaven, while she has a ghost - 
dog on earth coming back to march in a Decoration Day 
parade beside his master. Isabel Howe Fisk in a drama 
shows the Archangel Raphael accompanied by his dog, 
a cavortive canine, not apparently archangehc. Ambrose 
Bierce evokes one terrible revenge-ghost, a dog that 
kills the murderer of his master, while ^ Eden Phillpotts 
represents a pack of spectral dogs that pursue the Evil 
One over the earth till the Judgment Day, each being a 
lost soul. A yoimg girl's Httle unbaptized baby is thought 
to be one of the number. Conan Doyle's Hound of the 
Baskervilles is a terrif^'ing canine of legendary power. 
Kerfol by Edith Wharton shows the ghosts of five dogs, 

' The Ghost Moth. ' In A nother LiUle Heath Hound. 



Conclusion 291 



'f 



eadi carefolly individiiaHzed. — a Chinese sleeve-do^, a 
rough brindled bulldog, a Icr.r -lir^i —'-'- — ; 
larre -:r^e pointer with one : : : „ :. l i^ f . 
rr i. These sceiTers :: f,r -nals tha.: ji£ 



-r dav on 



join them. 

Thedii ~ r : ;-:m5 

oooqxisitf : 

and strai^.:: ^ : ^ :^ 

to the vkrcini it pursued. Aigemon ~ . v%es^ 

digo has cre^trf -r-.attnal anTrr-. : .roiigjii 

the air anl : irr . sway to insi le^th. 

Hemy R. cbost of a ^ le 

:here i -As, an 



T T- ii in the later 

fiction o: - : ssed- In 

addition : f ar: — 

g^iosts fo: ^ — -.iper- 

nattiial dement is of seooni ance, being used 

to teac^ some truth or ridicnr Jacy. The sym- 

bohstic, humorous, and ?atirl : : '-^ind in modem 



292 Conclusion 

occult fiction and when well done have a double effect, 
that of primary supernatural impressiveness, and, in 
addition, of the subtler purposes behind the stories. 
Moralized legends, spiritual allegories such as Hawthorne 
wrote with consummate art, have continued to the present 
and form a contrast to the crude machinery of Gothic 
horrors. The delicacy of suggestion, the power of 
hinted ghostliness, though manifest in Shakespeare, are 
really modem achievements, for no one save him attained 
to them in earlier art. Mystic poetic fiction, spiritual 
symbolism appears in much of the modern unearthly 
writing. In certain cases it is interesting to note the 
change of old mythological stories into moral allegory. 
The plays and the stories of Lord Dunsany are peculiarly 
symboHc and have the force of antique mythology made 
instant and real. Yet they have a distinctive touch all 
their own. For instance, the story of the king who goes 
over the world seeking his lost yesterday, his dear past, 
who is told by the weird keeper of the bygone >ears 
that he cannot have it back, no not one golden second, 
has a delicate pathos of poetry. When the mournful 
king has gone back to his palace, a hoar harper comes 
who plays for him, and lo! to the strings of the harp 
have clung the golden seconds of his happiest hours, so 
that he lives them over again while the music lasts. 
The Book of the Serpent tells symbolic stories that are 
poems in prose, fantastic fables. The Creator is mak- 
ing experiments with dust-heaps, while the Serpent, 
the Turtle, and the Grasshopper look on, ask questions, 
and offer comments. The Serpent trails all through the 
dust-heap meant as stuff for artists, and the Maker drops 
a tear in that whereof He means to make mothers. 
He experiments with monkeys trying to learn how best to 
make man, and after man is complete. He makes woman. 
The stories of Oscar Wilde have, some of them, a beauty 



Conclusion 293 

like that of some antique iUtumnated missal, with its 
jewded words, its mystic figures. Wilde's ornate style, 
prose that trembles on the vCTge of poetiy, full of passion 
and color and light, makes one think of his own words 
in The Xighiingale and the Rose, whoe the poet's song 
was "builded of music by moonlight and staire^ —''h 
his own heart's blood." 

The drl:;L:r suggestion of the unearthly. :r.e e' r.^r.: 
of suspense the sense of the s-j: Trr.i:ural 10 

that which : —si, is seoi in sj : ~e? as 

A Dream c; _ . Frederick V.i ::~ The 

ancient bdief that the soui may return to the body within 
a few days £.fter ie-.th f ' ': i ■- : :: his dream-poem 

in prose. I: shi-s ::r :; t ::r the Unseen, 

with a love:: : 5 It: i:: ^ thebarr .:£ : : he grave, revealing 
idyllic sorrc" :er's lo . i ies death, and 

expresses thr t t /pT-r^-::- :^ c-f a miracle, 

with a beai:: :^^: r i^L: :: : :i!ething of 

the same :':ie:r-e. of a father's ~ u ghter's 

grave :: : r^: :he loved voice z:.- :~ :i :t — 1 in 
And: sicry.' But here th^r 5 :.::::: :,i : : :-?^ 

inste jicdy love. When :r : ::.: :r.r£ : u '.r 

alence that issues from the grave is more terrible than 
^lostJy sounds would be, mo:e Ireaif ..! Ir. its sut-emrrta! 



The purely hmnorous supematuralism is essentiaUy 
a new thing. The old religious dramas had used comic 
devils, and Pede's Ghost of Jack is supposed to be humor- 
ous, Imt not at all in the modem sense. There was nothing 
in early drama or fiction like the loUicking fun of Richard 
Middleton's Ghost Ship, or Frank R. Stockton's spectral 
humorists. The work of John Kendrick Bangs illustrates 
the free and easy manner of the modems toward ghosts. 



294 Conclusion 

picturing them in unconventional situations and divesting 
them of all their ancient dignity. He shows us the 
wraith of the maiden who drowned herself in a fit of pique, 
for which she is punished by having to haunt the ancestral 
house as a shower-bath. His spectral cook of Bangletop 
is an original revenge-ghost, with a villainous inversion 
of h's, who haunts an estate because a medieval baron 
discharged her without wages. His convivial spooks in 
their ghost club, his astrals who play pranks on mortals, 
and their confreres are examples of the modern flippancy 
toward supernaturals. 

The satirical use of supernaturalism is also new. Late 
literature laughs at everything, with a daring familiarity 
undreamed of before, save in sporadic cases. The devil 
has been an ancient subject for laughter, but recent fiction 
ridicules him still more, so that we have scant respect 
for him, while the ghost, formerly a personage held in 
great respect, now comes in for his share of ragging. No 
being is too sacred to escape the light arrows of fun. 
Heaven is satirically exploited, and angels, saints, and even 
Deity have become subjects for jesting, conventionalized 
with the mother-in-law, the tenderfoot, the Irishman, and 
so forth. There is a considerable body of anecdotal 
literature of the supernatural, showing to what extent 
the levity of treatment has gone. Various aspects of 
mortal life are satirized, as in Inez Haynes Gilmore's 
Angel Island, which is a campaign document for woman's 
suffrage. Satiric supernaturalism is employed to drive 
home many truths, to puncture conceits of all kinds, 
and when well done is effective, for laughter is a clever 
weapon. 

The advance of the later supernatural fiction over the 
earlier is nowhere seen more distinctly than in the in- 
creased effectiveness with which it manages the mechanics 
of emotion, its skill in selecting and elaborating the details 



Conclusion 295 

by which terror and awe are produced. The present- 
day artist of the uncanny knows how to strike the varied 
tones of supernaturalism, the shrill notes of fear, the deep 
diapason of awe, the crashing chords of horror. The 
skillful writer chooses with utmost care the seemingly 
trivial details that go to make up the atmosphere of the 
unearthly. Shakespeare was a master of that, but none 
other of his time. The knocking at the gate in Macbeth, 
for instance, is a perfect example of the employment of a 
natural incident to produce an effect of the supernatural, 
as De Quincey has pointed out in his essay on the subject. 

The Gothic novel relied largely for its impressiveness 
on emphasizing ghostly scenes by representing aspects of 
weather to harmonize with the emotions of the characters. 
This was overworked in terror fiction, and while it still 
possesses power it is a much less common method of 
technique than it used to be. Poe's introductory para- 
graph in The Fall of the House of Usher is a notable exam- 
ple of skill in creating atmosphere of the supernatural by 
various details including phenomena of weather, and 
Hardy shows special power in harmonizing nature to the 
moods and purposes of his characters. Yet many a 
modem story produces a profound sense of awe, and 
purges the soul by means of terror with no reference at all 
to foreboding weather. However, the allusions now made 
are more skillful and show more selective power than of 
old. 

Gothic fiction had much to say of melancholy birds 
that circled portentously over ancient castles filled with 
gloom and ghosts, but they were generic and not individual 
specimens. The fowl was always spoken of as "a bird of 
prey," "a night bird," "a bat," "an owl," or by some 
such vague term. Natural history has become more 
generally known since those times and writers of to-day 
introduce their ominous birds with more definiteness and 



296 Conclusion 

appropriateness. The repulsive bat that chngs to the 
window ledge in Bram Stoker's novel is a vampire, a 
symbol of the whole horrible situation, as the kite that 
soars menacingly overhead in another of his novels is 
individualized and becomes a definite thing of terror. 
Poe's raven is vastly more a bird of evil than any specimen 
in the Gothic aviary. Robert W. Chambers brings in a 
cormorant several times as a portent of ghostly disaster, 
particularly foreboding when it turns toward the land. 
"On the dark glistening cliffs, silhouetted against the 
glare of the sea, sat a cormorant, black, motionless, its 
horrible head raised toward heaven." There is in recent 
fiction no bird more dreadful in import than the belled 
buzzard that Irvin Cobb makes the leading figure in his 
story by that name. This is an excellent example of the 
use of the natural to produce terror and awe, for the mur- 
derer sees in the bird a minister of fate, and the faint tinkle 
of its bell as it soars over the marsh where the body lies 
buried paralyzes him with horror. At last he can bear 
no more, and hearing it, as he thinks, close at hand, he 
shrieks out his confession, — only to find this time that it 
is not the belled buzzard at all that he hears, but only an 
old cowbell that a little negro child has picked up in the 
barnyard ! 

Robert W. Chambers in his early stories contrives to 
give varying supernatural effects by descriptions of 
shadows as symbolic of life and character. He speaks of 
shadows of spirits or of persons fated to disaster as white ; 
again his supernatural shadows may be gray — gray is a 
favored shade for ghostly effect whether for witches or for 
phantoms — and sometimes they are perfectty black, to 
indicate differing conditions of destiny. Quiller-Couch 
has a strange little allegory, The Magic Shadow, and other 
writers have used similar methods to produce uncanny 
effects. 



Conclusion 297 

The Gothic romance made much use of portents of the 
supernatural, which later fiction does as well, but differ- 
ently and with greater skill. The modern stories for the 
most part abandon the conventional portents, the dear old 
clock forever striking twelve or one — there was no Gothic 
castle so impoverished as to lack such ghostly horologue! — 
the abbey bell that tolls at touch of spirit hands or wizard 
winds, the statuesque nose-bleed, the fire that burns 
blue at approach of a specter, and so forth. The later 
story is more selective in its aids to ghostly effect, and 
adapts the means desired to each particular case, so that 
it hits the mark. For instance, the sardonic laughter 
that sounds as the burglars are cracking the gate of 
heaven to get in, and imagining what they will find, is 
prophetic of the emptiness, the nothingness, that meets 
their astounded gaze when they are within. Ambrose 
Bierce in some of his stories describes the repulsiveness of 
the fleshly corpse, reanimated by the spirit, perhaps not 
the spirit belonging to it, with a loathly effect more aweful 
than any purely psychic phantom could produce, which 
reminds us somewhat of the corpse come to Hfe in Thomas 
Lovell Beddoes's Death's Jest Book. 

The horrors of invisibility in modem fiction avail to 
give a ghastly chill to the soul that visible apparitions 
rarely impart. Likewise the effect of mystery, of the 
incalculable element, in giving an impression of super- 
naturalism is a recognized method of technique in many 
stories, as the minister's black veil in Hawthorne's sym- 
bolic story. The unspeakable revolting suggestion in 
Edith Wharton's The Eyes, where a man is haunted by 
two hideous eyes that "have the physical effect of a bad 
smell, whose look left a smear like a snail, " is built up with 
imcommon art. We do not realize how much is due to 
insanity and how much to the supernatural, when, after 
telling the stor}^ of his obsession, his fears that as a climax 



298 Conclusion 

he will become like those Eyes, the man suddenly sees 
his reflection in the mirror and meets their dreadful 
gaze. "He and the image confronted each other with a 
glare of slowly gathering hate ! ' ' Mention might be made 
of an incident in a recently published literary drama, 
where a man seeks over the world for the unknown woman 
with whom he has fallen in love, and on his calling aloud 
in question as to who she is, "the grave, with nettle- 
bearded lips replied, 'It is I, Death!'" These are only 
suggestions of numberless instances that might be given 
of a modern technique of supernaturalism that surpasses 
anything in Gothic fiction. 

The effectiveness of modern ghostly stories is aided by 
the suggestiveness of the unearthly given by the use of 
"sensitives," animals or persons that are peculiarly alert 
to the occult impressions. We see in many stories that 
children perceive the supernatural presences more quickly 
than adults, as in Mrs. Oliphant's story of the ghost 
returning to right a wrong, trying strenuously to make 
herself known to the grown person and realized only by a 
little child. In Belasco's play the little boy is the first 
and for a long time the only one to sense the return of 
Peter Grimm. In Maeterlinck's The Blind, the baby in 
arms is aware of the unearthly presences better than the 
men and women. Sometimes the sensitive is a blind 
person, as the old grandfather in another of Maeter- 
linck's short plays, who is conscious of the approaching 
Death before any of the others, or blind Anna in D'Annun- 
zio's drama. The Dead City. 

Animals are quick to perceive supernatural manifesta- 
tions. Cats in fiction are shown as being at ease in the 
presence of ghosts perhaps because of their uncanny 
alliance with witches, while dogs and horses go wild with 
fear. This is noticed in many stories, as in Bulwer- 
Lytton's story of the haunted house where the dog dies of 



Conclusion 299 

terror in the face of the ghostly phenomena. The Psychic 
Doctor told of in Blackwood's uncanny stories, who 
goes to a house possessed by evil spirits, takes with him a 
cat and a dog which by their difference of action reveal 
to him the presence of the spirits long before they are 
visualized for him. 

In general, there is more power of suggestion in the 
later ghostly stories than in the earlier. The art is more 
subtle, the technique more skillfully studied, more artfully 
accidental. 

There is in modem fiction, notably the work of Poe, and 
that of many recent writers, Russian, French, and German 
as well as Enghsh, a type of supernaturalism that is closely 
associated with insanity. One may not tell just where 
the line is drawn, just how much of the element of the 
uncanny is the result of the broodings of an unbalanced 
brain, and how much is real ghostliness. Poe's studies 
of madness verge on the unearthly, as do Maupassant's, 
Hoffmann's, and others. Josephine Daskam Bacon illus- 
trates this genre in a recent volume of stories, TJie Strange 
Cases of Dr. Stanchion, the plots centering round instances 
of paranoia occurring in the practice of a famous alienist, 
— yet they are not paranoia alone! One instance is of a 
young girl who is haunted by the ghost of a nurse who has 
died because given the wrong medicine by mistake. 
She is on the border-line of insanity when her lover cries 
aloud that he would take the curse on himself for her if 
he could, which, by some unknown ps^^chic law, does 
effect a transference which frees her and obsesses him. 
Another is that of a man in the insane asylum, who 
recognizes in a mysterious housekeeper the spirit of his 
wife, who comes from the grave to keep him company 
and vanishes on the day of his death. These are curious 
analyses of the idee fixe in its effect on the human mind, 
of insanity as a cause or effect of the supernatural. Barry 



300 Conclusion 

Pain's Celestial Grocery is a recent example, a story of a 
man whose madness carries him to another planet, showing 
him inverted aspects of Hfe, where emotions are the only 
real things, all else but shadows. Du Manner's pathetic 
novel portraying the passion and anguish and joy of Peter 
Ibbetson that touches the thin line between sanity and 
madness, showing in his dream-metempsychosis a power 
to relive the past and even to live someone else's life, is 
a striking example. One interesting aspect of that story 
is the point where the spirit of Mary changes from the 
dream-lover of twenty -eight to the ghost of the woman 
fifty-two, since she has died and can no more come to her 
lover as she once did, but must come as her own phantom. 
There are extraordinary effects of insanity associated 
with the supernatural in the work of Ambrose Bierce, of 
Arthur Machen and others of the modern school. ItaHan 
literature shows some significant instances in Fogazzaro's 
The Woman and D'Annunzio's Sogno d'lin Mattino di 
Primavera. As Lord Dunsany says of it, "Who can say 
of insanity, — whether it be divine or of the Pit?" 

We have noticed in preceding chapters two aspects of 
modern supernaturalism as distinguished from the Gothic, 
— the giving of cumulative and more terrible power to 
ghostly beings, and on the other hand the leveling influ- 
ence that makes them more human. The access of horror 
and unearthly force as shown in the characters described 
by certain writers is significant. In the work of Bierce, 
Machen, Blackwood, Stoker, and others supernaturalism 
is raised to the nth power and every possible thrill is em- 
ployed. The carrion ghosts of Bierce, animated by malig- 
nant foreign spirits, surpass the chamel shudders produced 
by the Gothic. Algernon Blackwood's Psychic Invasions, 
where localities rather than mere apartments or houses 
alone are haunted, diabolized by undying evil influences 



Conclusion 301 

with compound power, his Elementals that control the 
forces of wind and wave and fire to work their demon 
will, are unlike anything that the early terror novel con- 
ceived of. Horace Walpole and Mrs. Radcliffe knew no 
thrills like those of Bram Stoker's Count Dracula who is 
an immemorial evil, a vampire and werewolf as well as 
man, with power to change himself into a vampire bat 
or animal of prey at will. The Unhuried, by Josephine 
Daskam Bacon, is more horrific than any mere revenge 
ghost, however much it shrieked "Vindicta!" The di- 
abolism in Arthur Machen's work reeks obscurely of a 
Pit more horrible than epic or drama has portrayed. In 
general, many of the later ghostly characters are more 
complex, more intense in evil than the Gothic. 

While it is true that certain writers show a tendency to 
create supernatural characters having an excess of evil 
power beyond the previous uncanny beings, on the other 
hand there is an equally strong and significant tendency 
to reduce the ghostly beings nearer to the human. Fiction 
here, as frequently, seems ahead of general belief, and 
refuses to believe in the altogether evil. Ghosts, angels, 
witches, devils, werewolves, and so forth are now made 
more human, more like to man, yet without losing any of 
their ancient power to thrill. Ghosts in late literature 
have more of the mortal characteristics than ever before, 
as has been pointed out in a previous chapter. They 
look more human, more normal, they are clad in everyday 
garments of varied colors, from red shirts and khaki 
riding-habits to ball-gowns, — though gray seems the 
favored shade for shades as well as witches, — and they 
have lost that look of pallor that distinguished early 
phantoms. Now they are more than merely vaporous 
projections as they used to be, more than merely phantas- 
mogenetic apparitions, — but are healthy, red-blooded 
spooks. They are not tongue-tied as their ancestors were. 



302 Conclusion 

but are very chatty, giving forth views on ever3rthing they 
are interested in, from socialism to the present war. And 
their range of interests has widened immeasurably. It 
woiild seem that the literacy test has been appHed to 
ghosts in recent fiction. ^Modern specters are so normal 
in appearance that often no one recognizes them as ghosts, 
— as in Edith Wharton's stor}^ Aftercvards, where the 
peculiar thing about the apparition haunting a certain 
house is that it is not till long afterguards that one knows 
it was a ghost. The man in the gray suit whom the wife 
thinks a chance caller is the spirit of a man not yet dead, 
a terrible living revenge-ghost, who finally takes his 
victim mysteriously away with him. Modem ghosts 
have both motions and emotions like men, hence mortals 
are coming to regard them miore sympathetically, to 
have more of a fellow-feeling for them. 

Likewise the angels are now^ only a very little higher 
if any than men. Seraphs are democratic, and angels 
have developed a sense of humor that renders them more 
interesting than they used to be. The wmged being that 
H. G. Wells's vicar goes gunning for is a charming youth 
with a naive satire, as the angels in ]Mark Twain's 
story of heaven are realistically mortal and masculine 
in tastes. They care little for harps and crowns, grow 
fidgety under excess of rest, and engage in all sorts 
of activities, retaining their individual tastes. James 
Stephens's archangel, seraph, and cherub are chatty, 
cordial souls with an avidity for cold potatoes and Irish 
companionship. 

The demons as well have felt the same leveling 
influence experienced by the ghosts and the angels. 
Only, in their case, the thing is reversed, and they are 
raised to the grade of humanity. We are coming to see, 
in modern fiction, at least, that the devil is not really 
black, only a pleasant mottled gray like ourselves. Satan, 



Conclusion 303 

in Mark Twain's posthumous novel, ' is an affable young 
fellow, claiming to be the nephew and namesake of the 
personage best known by that name. Bernard Shaw's 
devil is of a Chesterfieldian courtesy, willing to speed 
the parting as to welcome the coming guest. I have found 
no comic use of the werewolf or of the vampire, though 
there are several comic witch stories, yet all these person- 
ages are humanized in modern fiction. We feel in some 
recent supernatural stories a sense of a continuing current 
of life. These ghosts, devils, witches, angels, and so 
forth are too real to be cut short by an author's Finis. 

Another aspect of the leveling influence is seen in the 
more than natural power of motion, feeling, and intelli- 
gence given to inanimate objects, machinery, plants, and 
animals, in late literature. The idea of endowing inani- 
mate figures with life and personality is seen several 
times in Hawthorne's stories, as his snow image, Browne's 
wooden image, the vivified scarecrow, Feathertop, that 
the witch makes. The clay figures that Satan in Mark 
Twain's novel models, endues with life, then destroys with 
the fine, casual carelessness of a god, remind one of an 
incident from mythology. The statue in Edith Wharton's 
The Duchess at Prayer that changes its expression, showing 
on its marble face through a century the loathing and 
horror that the living countenance wore, or Lord Dun- 
sany's jade idol^ that comes with stony steps across 
the desolate moor to exact vengeance on four men help- 
less in its presence, has a more intense thrill than Otranto's 
peripatetic statue. Lord Dunsany's The Gods of the 
Mountains, of which Frank Harris says, "It is the only 
play which has meant anything to me in twenty years." 
shows an inexorable fatality as in the Greek drama. 

Science is revealing wonderful facts and fiction is quick 
to realize the possibilities for startling situations in every 

' The Mysterious Stranger. * In A Night at an Inn. 



304 Conclusion 

field. So diabolic botanical specimens, animals endowed 
with human or more than human craft — sometimes gifted 
with immortality as well — add a new interest to uncanny 
fiction. And the new machines that make all impossi- 
bilities come to pass inspire a significant class of super- 
natural stories. In general, a new force is given to all 
things, to raise them to the level of the human. 

In the same way nature is given a new power and 
becomes man's equal, — sometimes far his superior — in 
thought and action. The maelstrom in Poe's story 
is more than merely a part of the setting, — it is a terrible 
force in action. Algernon Blackwood stresses this vari- 
ously in his stories, as where Egypt is shown as a vital 
presence and powder, or where the "goblin trees" are as 
awful as any of the other characters of evil, or in the 
wind and flame on the mountain that are elements of 
supernatural power, with a resistless lure for mortals, or 
in the vampire soil that steals a man's strength. This 
may be illustrated as well from the drama, as in Maeter- 
linck's where Death is the silent, invisible, yet dominant 
force, or in Synge's where the sea is a terrible foe, lying 
in wait for man, or in August Stramm's The Daughter 
of the Moor, where the moor is a compelling character 
of evil. Gothic fiction did associate the phenomena of 
nature with the moods of the action, yet in a less effective 
way. The aspects of nature in recent literature have 
been raised to the level of humanity, becoming mortal or 
else diabolic or divine. 

In general, in modern fiction, man now makes his super- 
natural characters in his own image. Ghosts, angels, 
devils, wdtches, werewolves, are humanized, made like 
to man in appearance, passions, and powers. On the 
other hand, plants, inanimate objects, and animals, as 
well as the phenomena of nature, are raised to the human 
plane and given access of power. This leveling process 



Conclusion 3^5 

democratizes the supernatural elements and tends to 
make them almost equal. 

The present revival of interest in the supernatural and 
its appearance in Hterature are as marked in the drama as 
in fiction or poetry. Mr. E. C. Whitmore, in a recently 
published volume on The Supernatural in Tragedy, has 
ably treated the subject, especially in the Greek classic 
period and the Elizabethan age in England. His thesis 
is that the supemattiral is most frequently associated 
with tragedy, and is found where tragedy is at its best. 
This may be true of earlier periods of the tragic drama, 
yet it would be going too far to make the assertion of the 
drama of the present time. The occult makes its appear- 
ance to a considerable extent now in melodrama and 
even in comedy, though with no decrease in the frequency 
and effectiveness of its use in tragedy. This only illus- 
trates the widening of its sphere and its adaptability to 
varying forms of art. 

A brief survey of some of the plays produced in the last 
few years, most of them being seen in New York, will 
illustrate the extent to which the ghostly motifs are used 
on the stage of to-day. Double personality is represented ' 
by Edward Locke, in a play which is said by critics to be 
virtually a dramatization of Dr. Morton Prince's study, ^ 
where psychological apparatus used in laboratory experi- 
ments to expel the evil intruder from the girl, a chrono- 
scope, a dynograph, revolving mirrors, make the setting 
seem truly psychical. But the most dramatic instance 
of the kind, of course, is the dramatization of Dr. Jekyll's 
alter ego. 

The plays of Charles Rann Kennedy ^ and Jerome K. 
Jerome 4 are akin to the old mystery plays in that they 

' In The Case oj Becky. ' The Disassociation of a Personality. 

3 The Servant in the House. ■♦ The Passing of Die Third Floor Back. 



3o6 Conclusion 

personate divinity and show the miracle of Christly 
influence on sinful hearts. Augustus Thomas^ and 
Edward Milton Royle'' introduce hypnotism as the basis 
of complication and denouement. Supematiiral healing, 
miraculous intervention of divine power, occur in plays 
by William Vaughan Moody, ^ Bjornson, ^ and George 
M. Cohan. s Another^ turns on converse with spirits, 
as does Belasco's Return of Peter Grimm, while a war 
play by Vida Sutton^ shows four ghosts on the stage at 
once, astonishing phantoms who do not reaUze that they 
are dead. Others^ have for their themes miracles of 
faith and rescue from danger, though the first -named play 
satirizes such belief and the latter is a piece of Catholic 
propaganda. 

Magic, by G. K. Chesterton, introduces supernatural 
forces whereby strange things are made to happen, such 
as the changing of the electric light from green to blue. 
Peter Ihhetson, the dramatization of Du Maurier's novel, 
shows dream- supern at uralism, and various other psychic 
effects in a delicate and distinctive manner. And The 
Willow Tree, by Benrimo and Harrison Rhodes, is built 
upon an ancient Japanese legend, relating a hamadryad 
myth with other supermortal phantasies, such as repre- 
senting a woman's soul as contained in a mirror. 

We have fairy plays by J. M. Barrie, ^ W. B. Yeats, '"^ and 
Maeterlinck," and the mermaid has even been staged,'^ 
Bernard Shaw shows us the devil in his own home town, 
while Hauptmann gives us Hannele's visions of heaven. 
The Frankenstein theme is used to provoke laughter 



* In The Witching Hour. ' In The Ujiwritten Law. 

3 The Faith Healer. ^ Beyond Their Strength. 

s The Miracle Man. ^ The Spiritualist. ^ Kingdom Come. 

' As The Eternal Mystery, by George Jean Nathan, and The Rosary. 
' Peter Pan. •<> The Land of Heart's Desire. 

" The Blue Bird. " The Mermaid. 



Conclusion 307 

mixed with thrills.' Owen and Pvobert Davis =* sym- 
bolize man's better angel, while The Eternal Magdalene, 
a dream-drama, shows another piece of symbolic super- 
naturalism. Lord Dunsany's plays have already been 
mentioned. 

Yet the drama, though showing a definite revival of the 
supernatural, and illustrating various forms of it, is more 
restricted than fiction. Many aspects of the occult 
appear and the psychic drama is popular, but the necessi- 
ties of presentation on the stage inevitably bar many 
forms of the ghostly art that take their place naturally 
in fiction. The closet drama does not come under this 
limitation, for in effect it is almost as free as fiction to in- 
troduce mystical, symbolic, and invisible presences. The 
closet drama is usually in poetic form and poetry is closer 
akin to certain forms of the supernatural than is prose, 
which makes their use more natural. 

The Hterary playlet, so popular just now, uses the ghostly 
in many ways. One shows the Archangel Raphael with 
his dog, working miracles, while another includes in its 
dramatis per son cb sl faun and a moon goddess who insists 
on giving the faun a soul, at which he wildly protests. As 
through suffering and human pain he accepts the gift, a 
symbolic white butterfly poises itself on his uplifted hand, 
then flits toward Heaven. In another, Padraic yields 
himself to the fairies' power as the price of bread for the 
girl he loves. Theodore Dreiser's short plays bring in 
creatures impossible of representation on the stage, 
"persistences" of fish, animals, and birds, symbolic 
Shadows, a Blue Sphere, a Power of Physics, Nitrous 
Acid, a Fast Mail (though trains have been used on the 
stage), and so forth. 

Instances from recent German drama might be given, 

* In The Last Laugh, by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard. 
' In Any House. 



3o8 Conclusion 

as the work of August Stramm, who Hke Rupert Brooke 
and the ill-starred poets of the Irish revolution has 
fallen as a sacrifice to the war. An article in the Literary 
Digest says of Stramm that "he felt behind all the beauty 
of the world its elemental passions and believed these to 
be the projections of human passions in the waves of 
wind and light and water, in flames of earth." He in- 
cludes among his characters' a Spider, Nightingales, 
Moonlight, Wind, and Blossoms. Carl Hauptmann^ 
likewise shows the elemental forces of nature and of 
super-nature. On the battlefield of death the dead arise 
to join in one dreadful chant of hate against their enemies. 

Leonid Andreyev's striking play^ might be mentioned 
as an example from the Russian. King-Hunger, Death, and 
Old time Bell-Ringer, are the principal actors, while the 
human beings are all deformed and distorted, "one con- 
tinuous malicious monstrosity bearing only a remote 
likeness to man." The starving men are slain, but over 
the field of the dead the motionless figure of Death is seen 
silhouetted. But the dead arise, and a dull, distant, 
manifold murmur, as if underground, is heard, "We come! 
Woe unto the victorious!" 

But as I have said, these are hterary dramas, impossible 
of presentation on the stage, so that they are judged by 
literary rather than dramatic standards. For the most 
part fiction is infinitely freer in its range and choice of 
subjects from the supernatural than is the drama. The 
suggestive, symbolic, mystic effects which could not in 
any way be presented on the stage, but which are more 
truly of the province of poetry, are used in prose that has 
a jeweled beauty and a melody as of poetry. Elements 
such as invisibility, for instance, and various occult 
agencies may be stressed and analyzed in fiction as 

' In Sancta Susanna. * In The Dead Are Singing. 

3 King-Hunger. 



Conclusion 309 

would be impossible on the stage. The close relation 
between insanity and the weird can be much more effec- 
tively shown in the novel or short story than in the drama, 
as the forces of mystery, the incalculable agencies can 
be thus better emphasized. Ghosts need to be seen on 
the stage to have the best effect, even if they are meant 
as "selective apparitions" like Banquo, and if thus 
seen they are too corporeal for the most impressive influ- 
ence, while in fiction they can be suggested with delicate 
reserve. Supernatural presences that could not be 
imaged on the boards may be represented in the novel or 
story, as Blackwood's Elementals or Psychic Invasions. 
How could one stage such action, for instance, as his 
citizens turning into witch-cats or his Giant Devil looming 
mightily in the heavens? Likewise in fiction the full pre- 
sentation of scientific supernaturalism can be achieved, 
which would be impossible on the stage. 

In conclusion, it might be said that fiction offers the 
most popular present vehicle for expression of the un- 
doubtedly reviving supernaturalism in English literature. 
And fiction is likewise the best form, that which affords 
the more varied chances for effectiveness. The rising tide 
of the unearthly in art shows itself in all literary forms, 
as dramatic, narrative, and lyric poetry, with a few epics 
— in the playlet as in the standard drama, in the short story 
as in the novel. It manifests itself in countless ways in 
current literature and inviting lines of investigation suggest 
themselves with reference to various aspects of its study. 
The supernatural as especially related to religion offers 
an interesting field for research. The miracles from the 
Bible are often used, as in Lew Wallace's Ben Hur, and 
Christ is introduced in other times and places, as the war 
novel,' or in Marie Corelli's satire on Episcopacy,^ where 
the cardinal finds the Christ child outside the cathedral. 

' The Second Coming. ' The Master Christian. 



3IO Conclusion 

The more than mortal elements, as answers to prayer, the 
experience of conversion, spiritual miracles, and so forth, 
are present to a considerable extent in modem fiction. 
Two very recent novels of importance base their plots on 
the miraculous in religion, The Brook Kerith, by George 
Moore, and The Leatherwood God, by William Dean 
Howells. I have touched on this aspect of the subject 
in a previous article. ' 

One might profitably trace out the appearances of the 
ghostly in modern poetry, or one might study its mani- 
festations in the late drama, including melodrama and 
comedy as well as tragedy. This present treatment of the 
supernatural in modern English fiction makes no preten- 
sions to being complete. It is meant to be suggestive 
rather than exhaustive, and I shall be gratified if it may 
help to arouse further interest in a significant and vital 
phase of our literature and lead others to pursue the 
investigations. 

^ "Religion in Recent American Novels," in the January, 1914, Review 
and Expositor. 



INDEX 



Accusing Spirit, The, 21 

Address to the De'il, An, 131 

-^sop, Fables, 231 

Affair of Dishonor, An, gi 

Afterwards, 102, 202 

Afterwards, 302 

Ahasuerus, 176 

Ahrinziman, 88, 183, 213 

Aids to Gothic Effect, 36 et seq. 

Ainsworth, W. H., 181 

Alhigenses, The, 9, 11, 94, 168, 288 

Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 63 

Miss MehitaheVs Son, 68, 85, 

287 

Pere Antoine's Date Palm, 63 

Queen of Sheba, The, 122 

Amazonian Tortoise Myths, 2:^2 

Amboyna, 41 

Amiel, Friedrich, 144 

Among the Immortals, 217 

Amos Judd, 40, 257 

Amphitryton, 122 

Amycus and Celestine, 63 

Anansi Stories, 232 

Ancient Legends and Superstitions of 

Ireland, 229 
Ancient Records or the Abbey of St. 

Oswyth, 9, 21 
Ancient Sorceries, 65, 105, 124, 153, 

194 
Andersen, Hans Christian, 155, 

176, 233 
The Little Mermaid, 155, 176, 

233 

Andreyev, Leonidas, 69 

King-Hunger, 308 

Red Laugh, The, 69 

Silence, 293 

Angel Island, 294 
Angel Message, An, 207 
Ankerwich Casile, 34 
Another Little Heath Hound, 290 



Anti- Jacobin, The, 51 

Any House, 307 

Apuleius, Lucius, Metamorphoses, 

145 

Applier, Arthur, Vendetta of the 
Jungles, A, 168 

Arabian Nights' Tales, 252 

Architecture, Gothic, 8 et seq. 

Ariel, or the Invisible Monitor, 24 

Amim, Achim von, Die Beiden 
Waldemar, 122 

Arnold, Edwin Lester, Strange 
Adventures of Phra, the Phcenician, 
The, 188 

Arnold, Matthew: 

Forsaken Merman,The, 155,233 

Neckan, The, 155 

Arrest, An, 85 

Arthur and Gorlogon, 30 

Arthur Mervyn, 35 

Artist of the Beautiful, The, 287 

Astral Bridegroom, An, 207 

At the End of the Passage, 120 

At the Gate, 201, 291 

Auerbach, Berthold, 176 

Austen, Jane, 47, 49 

Northanger Abbey, 47, 51 

Austin, Alfred, Peter Rugg, the Miss- 
ing Man, 189 

Austin, M. H., Readjustment, 107 

Avengers, The, 56 

Ayesha, 183, 193 



B 



Bacon, Josephine Daskam, 94 

Children, The, 289 

Heritage, The, 94 

Miracle, The, 254 

Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchion, 

The, 254, 299 

Unburied, The, 66, 301 

Warning, The, 276 

Bahr-geist, The, 115, 225 



311 



312 



Index 



Balzac, Honors de, 182 

Elixir of Life, The, 60 

Magic Skin, The, 60 

Melmoth Reconcilie, 59 

Unknown Masterpiece, The, 60 

Bangs, John Kendrick, 112, 293 
Enchanted Typewriter, The, 

207, 286 

House-boat on the Styx, The, 

112, 216 
Pursuit of the House-boat, The, 

112, 187, 216 

Rebellious Heroine, The, 197 

Speck on the Lens, The, 255 

Thurlow's Christmas Story, 121 

Water-Ghost and Others, The, 

112 
Banshee, The, 99 
Bardic Stories of Ireland, 243 
Baring-Gould, S., 181 

Eve, 246 

Barker, Elsa, 206, 207 

Letters from a Living Dead Man, 

207 
War Letters from a Living 

Dead Man, 206, 292 
Barker, Granville, 123, 198 

Souls on Fifth, 123, 198, 215 

Barrett, Eaton Stannard, 8, 49 

Heroine, The, 49, 50 

Barrie, J. M., 240 

Little White Bird, The, 240 

Peter Pan, 240, 306 

Baynim, John, 246 

Baynim, Michael, 246 

Beckford, William, 17 

Vathek, 8, 17, 22, 25, 29, 33, 37, 

70 
Beddoes, Thomas Lovell, 53, 297 

Death's Jest Book, 53, 115, 297 

Beetle, The, 290 

Belasco, David, Return of Peter 

Grimm, The, 201, 298 
Beleaguered City, The, 211 
Bellamy, Edward, 189 

Looking Backward, 189, 262 

Belled Buzzard, The, 296 

Benet, William Rose, Man with the 

Pigeons, The, 218 
Ben Hur, 309 

Bennett, Arnold, Ghost, The, wj 
Beowulf, 281 
Berenice, 62 
Besant, Walter, Ivory Gate, The, 

122 
Betrothed, The, 225 
Beyond Their Strength, 306 



Bierce, Ambrose, 53, 61, 109, 116, 
290, 300 

Arrest, An, 85 

Damned Thing, The, 61, 92 

Death of Halpin Frazer, The, 

no, 192 
Eyes of the Panther, The, 1 70, 

271 
Middle Toe of the Right Foot, 

The, 61, 92 

Mysterious Disappearances, 259 

Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, 

The, 275 

Two Military Executions, 116 

Vine on the House, A , 90 

Biology, Supernatural, 270 
Biology, Supernatural in Gothicism, 

34 
Birthmark, The, 185, 270 
Bisclaveret, 30, 168 
Bisland, Elizabeth, The Case of John 

Smith, 215 
Bjomson, Bjomstjerne, 306 

Beyond Their Strength, 306 

Black Magic, 146 

Black Monk, The, 69 

Black Patch, The, 255 

Blackmore, R. D., Lorna Doone, 226 

Blackwood, Algernon, 68, 76, 79, 

85. 96, 105, 166, 171, 235, 273, 

285, 287, 300, 304, 309 
Ancient Sorceries, 65, 124, 153, 

194 

Camp of the Dog, The, 170 

Clairvoyance, 289 

Empty House, The, 98, 117 

Glamour of the Snow, The, 

231 

Haunted Island, ^,114 

Heath Fire, The, 23 1 

Human'Chord, The, 275 

Jules Le Vallon, 194 

Keeping His Promise, 98 

Man from the Gods, The, 121 

Man Whom the Trees Loved, 

The, 230, 272 

Nemesis of the Fire, A , 98 

Old Clothes, 124, 194 

Psychic Invasion, A, 106 

Regeneration of Lord Ernie, 

The, 230 

Return, The, 123, 198 

Sand, 230 

Sea Fit, The, 230 

Secret Worship, 105, 117, 137 

Temptation of the Clay, The, 

231 



Index 



313 



Blackwood, Algernon {Continued) 
Terror of the Twins, The, 122, 

192 

Transfer, The, 164 

Wave, The, 194 

With Intent to Steal, 62, 117 

Bleek, W. H. I., Reynard, the Fox, 

in South Africa, 2t^2 
Blind, The, 64, 298 
Blithedale Romance, The, 188, 199 
Blue-Bird, The, 64, 278, 280, 306 
Blue Roses, 268 
Blue Sphere, The, 208, 278 
Blythe, James, Mine Host and the 

Witch, 148 
Bon Bon, 95, 141 
Bones, Sanders, and Another, 156 
Bonhote, Mrs., 20 

Bungay Castle, 20, 45 

Book of the Serpent, 292 

Book of Wonder, The, 245 

Borderland, The, 124 

Botany, vSupematiiral, 272 et seq. 

Bottle Imp, The, 70 

Bottomley, Gordon, 65, 153, 285 

Crier by Night, The, 65, 238 

Riding to Lithend, 1 52 

Bowmen and Others, The, 204, 258, 

282 
Brand, 65 

Brandes, Georg, 122 
Romantic Reduplication and 

Personality, 122 
Brentano, Die Mehreren Wehmiiller, 

122 
Bride of Lammermoor, The, 38 
Brieux, Eugene, 252 
Brissot's Ghost, 89 
Bronte, Emily, 86 

Wuthering Heights, 86, 226 

Brook Kerith, The, 31c 
Brooke, Rupert, 308 

Failure, 222 

Heaven, 221, 283 

On Certain Proceedings of the 

Psychical Research Society, 281, 

283 
Brown, Alice, loi, 211 

Here and There, loi, 107 

Tryst, The, 126, 211 

Brown, Charles Brockden, 35 

Arthur Mervyn, 35 

Edgar Huntley, 39 

Wieland, 35, 39 

Brownie of Bodbeck, The, 26, 38 
Browning, Eli;^abeth Barrett, 148 
Drama of Exile, i4, 133 



Lay of the Brown Rosary, The, 

148 
Browning, Robert, 69 

Sludge, the Medium, 69 

Brushwood Boy, The, 195 

Bubble Well Road, 138 

Buchanan, Robert, 177 

Wandering Jew, a Christmas 

Carol, The, 177, 180 
Haunters and the Haunted, 

The, 60, 78, 188, 299 

Strange Story, A, 90, 182 

Bungay Castle, 20, 45 
Bunyan, John, 213 
Burger, 56 

Lenore, 56 

Burnett, Frances Hodgson, White 

People, The, 203, 298 
Bums, Robert, 232 

Address to tJie De'il, An, 131 

Tarn O'Shanter, 156 

Bums, Miss, Shropshire Folk-tales, 

291 
Butler, Ellis Parker, Dey Ain't No 

Ghosts, 128 
Butler, Katherine, 

In No Strange Land, 96, 212 

Butler, Samuel, 262 

Erewhon, 262 

By the Waters of Paradise, 83 
B}Ton, LxDrd; 

Cain, 136 

Giaour, TJie, 160 

Heaven and Earth, 221 

Vision of Judgment, .4, 134 



Cable, George W., 226 
Calderon, 27, 133 

El Embozado, 1 19 

El Magico Prodi gioso, 100, 143 

Camp of the Dog, The, 170 
Campbell-Praed, Mrs., 207 

Nyria, 207 

Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven, 

Extracts from, 201, 217 
Car ofPhcebus, The, 207 
Carmen Sylva, 176, 233 
Case of Becky, The, 305 
CcLse of John Smith, The, 215 
Castle of Caithness, The, 20 
Castle of Otranto, The, 4, 8, 16, 25, 

31, 36, 40, 52, lOI 
Castle of Wolfenbach, The, 48 
Castle Specter, The, 53 
Celestial Grocery, The, 265, 300 



314 



Index 



Celestial Railroad, The, 213, 265, 300 

Celtic Revival, The, 227 

Celtic Twilight, The, 239 

Chambers, Robert W., 87, 290, 296 

The Messenger, 88 

Chamisso, 59, 176 

Erscheinung, 122 

Chansons de Gestes, 7 

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 87, 140, 217 

Friar's Tale, The, 140 

Chemistry, Supernatural, 267 

Cher, Marie, 197 

Immortal Gymnasts, The, 197 

Chesterton, G. K., 306 

Magic, 306 

Children, The, 289 

Children of the Mist, The, 226 

Christabel, 148, 238 

Clairvoyance, 289 

Clara Militch, 68, 162 

Clark, Rev. T., Wandering Jew, or 
the Travels of Bareach, the Pro- 
longed, The, 178 

Clarke, Laurence, 94 

Grey Guest, The, 94, 282 

Clermont, 48 

Cloak, The, 68 

Closed Cabinet, The, 107 

Cobb, Irvin, Belled Buzzard, The, 

Cobb, Palmer, Influence of E.T. A. 

Hoffmann on Edgar Allan Toe, 
The, 58 
Cocotte, 61 

Coffin Merchant, The, 254 
Cohan, George M., 306 

Miracle Man, The, 306 

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 65, 118 

Christabel, 148, 238 

Wanderings of Cain, The, 118 

Collins, Wilkie, 78 

Dream Woman, The, 78 

Ghost Touch, The, 103 

Haunted Hotel, The, 89, 100 

Queen of Hearts, The, 107, 113 

Collins, William, Ode on the Popular 

Superstitions of the Highlands, 74 
Collison-Morley, Lacy, 202 
Greek and Roman Ghost Stories, 

202 
Comer, Cornelia A. P., Little Grey 

Ghost, The, 118 
Comus, 7, 148 
Confessions of a Justified Sinner, 

29 
Confessions of an English Opium- 

Eater, 268 



Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's 

Court, A, 189, 262, 286 
Converse, F., 93 

Co-operative Ghosts, 93, 98 

Conway, Hugh, 103 

Our Last Walk, 103 

Conway, M. D., 180 
Cooper, J. Fenimore, 226 
Co-operative Ghosts, 93, 98 
Corbin, John, 76 
Corelli, Marie: 

Master Christian, The, 309 

Romance of Two Worlds, -4, 213 

Sorrows of Satan, The, 136, 144 

Count Roderick's Castle, or Gothic 

Times, 20 
Countess Cathleen, 65, 143 
Courting of Dinah Shadd, The, 152 
Coward, The, 61 
Craddock, Charles Egbert, 83, 104, 

226 

His Unquiet Ghost, 83 

Crawford, F. Marion, 37, 68, 94, 

109, 116, 117 

Among the Immortals, 217 

By the Waters of Paradise, 83 

Dead Smile, The, 70, 109 

Doll's Ghost, A, 98 

For the Blood Is the Life, 62, 78, 

162 

Khaled, 62, 70, 147 

Man Overboard, 97 

Mr. Isaacs, 37, 71 

Screaming Skull, The, 60, 89, 

92 

Upper Berth, The, 100 

Witch of Prague, The, 149, 195, 

266 
Crawford, Hope, Ida Lomond and 

Her Hour of Vision, 207 
Creation, 277 

Crier by Night, The, 65, 238 
Crock of Gold, The, 241, 246 
Croly, George, 179 
Salathiel, or Tarry Thou Till I 

Come, 179 
Crystal Egg, The, 263 
Cuchulain of Muirthemne, 243 
Culex, 290 
Curran, Mrs. John H., Patience 

Worth, 197, 207 
Curse of the Cashmere Shawl, The, 

153 
Curse of the Fires and the Shadows, 

The, 154 
Curse of the Wandering Jew, The, 1 77 
Curtin, Jeremiah, 244 



Index 



315 



Curtis, George William, 121, 258 
Prue and I, 121, 258 



Dacre, Mrs., 10, 77 

Zofloya, 10, 17, 28, 33, 35. 37. 

38, 53, 154, 251 
Damned Thing, The, 61, 92 
Danby, Frank, Tunlight, 268 
Daniel and the Devil, 141 
D'Annunzio, Gabriel, 66 

Daughter of Jorio, The, 67, 149 

La Cittd Morta, 66, 298 

Sogno d'un Mattino di Prima- 

vera, 67, 300 
Sogno d'un Tramonto d'Au- 

tunno, 67, 152 
Dante, 27, 130, 133, 144, 209, 215 
Dark Nameless One, The, 155 
Darwin, Charles, 73, 251 
Darwin, Erasmus, 14 
Daughter of Jorio, The, 67, 149 
Daughter of the Moor, The, 304 
Davis, Owen, and Robert, Any 

House, 307 
Da\-is, Richard Harding, Vera, the 

Medium, 200 
Day of My Death, The, 199 
Days of the Comet, The, 264 
Dead Are Singing, The, 282 
Dead City, The, 298 
Dead Ship of Harpswell, The, 187 
Dead Smile, The, 70, 109 
Deakin, Lumlev, 146 

Red Debts', 146 

Death of Halpin Frazer, The, no, 

192 
Death's Jest Book, 53, 115, 297 
Defoe, Daniel, 205 

Apparition of Mrs. Veal, 205 

History of Duncan Campbell, 

The, 225 
Demi-gods, 242 
Demi-gods, The, 219, 221 
Daemonic Spirits, 158 et seg. 
Daemonology, Gothic, 33 
De Morgan, William Frend, 92, 

283 

Affair of Dishonor, An, gi 

Likely Story, A, 2S7 

De Quincey, Thomas 

Avengers, The, 56 

Confessions of an English 

Opium-Eater, 268 

Dream Fugue, 15 

Klosterheim, 56 



On the Knocking at the Gate in 

Macbeth, 295 
Descent into the Maelstrom, The, 231, 

253 
Devil, The, 138 

De\il and His Allies, The, 130 et seq. 
De\'il, Gothic, The, 27 et seq. 
Devil and Tom Walker, The, 140 
Devil in the Belfry, The, 141 
Dey Ain't No Ghosts, 128 
Diamond Lens, The, 274 
Dickey, Paul, 307 

Last Laugh, The, 307 

Dickens, Charles : 

Haunted House, The, 171 

Signal Man, The, 114 

Die Beiden Waldemar, 122 
Die Braui von Corinth, 162 
Die Mehreren Wehmiiller, 122 
Disassociation of a Personality, The, 

305 
Divine Adventure, The, 248 
Dr. Bidlivant, 185 
Dr. Faustus, 15, 143 
Dr. Heidigger's Experiment, 184, 252 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 120, 268, 

305 
Dog Harvey, The, 291 
Doings of Raffles Haw, The, 267 
Dolliver Romance, The, 183, 184 
Doll's Ghost, A, 98 
Door in the Wall, The, 258 
Doppelganger, 57, 119 
Doppel ganger, The, 122 
Dorset, St. John, 159 

Vampire, The, 159 

Double Personality, 305 
Doyle, A. Conan, 79 

Doings of Raffles Haw, The, 267 

Hound of the Baskervtlles, The, 

290 
Los Amigos Fiasco, The, 187, 

270 

Lot No. 4Q, 62 

Secret of Goresthorpe Grange, 

The, 79 

Silver Mirror, The, 259 

Terror of Blue John Gap, The, 

272 
Dracula, 78, 163, 188, 301 
Dream, The, 68 
Dream Fugue, 15 
Dream Gown of the Japanese Ambcts- 

sador, The, 79 
Dream of Armageddon, A, 196, 262 
Dream of Provence, A , 293 
Dream Woman, The, 78 



3i6 



Index 



Dreams, 13, 77 
Dreiser, Theodore : 

Blue Sphere, The, 208, 278 

In the Dark, 208 

Laughing Gas, 278 

Plays of the Natural and the 

Supernatural, 208 

Spring Recital, ^ , 208 

Dromgoole, Will Allen, 226 
Dr>^den, John, 41 

Amhoyna, 41 

Duchess at Prayer, The, 121, 303 
Duchess of Malfi, TJie, 8, 166 
Dumas, Alexandre, Pere, 159 

Le Vampire, 159 

DuMaurier, George: 

Martian, The, 196, 207, 264 

Peter Ibbetson, 186, 196, 206, 

300 

Trilby, 267 

Dunbar, Aldis, 244 
Dunbar, OHvia Howard, 85 

Shell of Sense, The, 85, 212 

Dunsany, Lord, 52, 63, 235, 242, 

244, 247, 249, 285, 292, 300 

Book of Wonder, The, 245 

Glittering Gate, The, 221, 222 

Gods of Pegana, The, 245 

Gods of the Mountain, The, 244, 

303 

Night at an Inn, A , 244, 303 

Time and the Gods, 245 

Usury, 198 

When the Gods Slept, 63, 74 



Edgar Huntley, 39 
Edwards, Amelia, 86 

Four-fifteen Express, The, 86 

Eel-King, the, 233 
Eighty-third, The, 61, 281 
El Embozado, 119 
Elementals, 300 
Eleonora, 103 
Eliot, George, 167, 257 

Lifted Veil, The, 157 

Elixiere des Teufels, 57 

Elixir of Life, The, 35, 182 et seq. 

Elixir of Life, The, 60 

Elixir of Youth, The, 186 

Elizabethan Drama, The, 139 

El Magico Prodigioso, 100, 143 

FJsie Venner, 170 

Elves, 247 

Emperor and Galilean, 42, 66 

Empty House, The, 98, 117 



Enchanted Typewriter, The, 207, 286 

Erckmann-Chatrian, 62 

Invisible Eye, The, 62 

OwVs Ear, The, 62 

Waters of Death, The, 62 

Erewhon, 262 

Erscheinung, 122 

Eternal Magdalen, The, 27 

Eternal Mystery, The, 306 

Ethelwina, or the House of Fitz- 

Auburne, 25 
Eubule-Evans, A. 177 
Curse of the Wandering Jew, 

The., 177 
Eve, 246 

Evil Eye, The, 152 
Exchange, The, 153, 156, 197 
Extract from Captain Stormfield's 

Visit to Heaven, An, 217 
Eyes, The, 297 
Eyes of the Panther, The, 170, 271 



Fable for Critics, A, 57 

Fables, 22)1 

Facts in the Case of M. Waldemar, 

266 
Faerie Queene, The, 7 
Failure, 22 
Fair God, The, 246 
Fairies of Pesth, The, 240 
Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, 237 
Fairy, The, 239 et seq. 
Faith Healer, The, 306 
Fall of the House of Usher, The, 295 
Faraway Melody, A, 97 
Faust, 143, 175 
FeatJiertop, 152, 156 
Fenn, George TvL, Man with the 

Shadow, The, 122 
Fiction of the Irish Celts, 243 
Field, Eugene, 141 

Daniel and the Devil, 141 

Eel-King, The, 233 

Holy Cross, The, 181 

Moon Lady, The, 233 

Mother in Paradise, The, 213 

Pagan Seal-wife, The, 233 

Wereic'olf, The, 169, 172 

Finch, Lucine, Butterfly, The, 307 
First Men in the Moon, The, 264 
Fisherman and His Soul, The, 134, 

153.236 
Fisk, Isabel Howe, 290 
Flair eurs, 64 
Flower of Silence, The, 273 



Index 



317 



Ftowering of the Strange Orchid, The, 
62. 164, 273 

Flying Dutchman, The, 187 
Fogazzaro, Antonio, 66 

Saint, The, 66 

Sinner, The, 66 

Woman, The, 66, 194, 300 

Folk-lore, 73 

Ford, James L., 266 

Forest Lovers, 149 

Forsaken Merman, The, 155, 233 

For the Blood Is the Life, 62, 78, 162 

Fouqu6, Henri Auguste, 57, 59 

Undine, 57 

Four-fifteen Express, The, 86 
Fourth Dimension, The, 256 
Fox, John, Jr., 226 
France, Anatole, 63 

Amycus and Celestine, 63 

Isle of the Penguins, The, 63 

Juggler of Notre Dame, The, 63 

Mass of Shadows, The, 63 

Putois, 63 

Revolt of the Angels, The, 220 

Scholas'ticus, 63 

Frankenstein, 14, 17, 34 
Franklin, Andrew, 176 

Wandering Jew, The, 176 

Freeman, Mary Wilkins, 78 

Faraway Melody, 97 

Hall Bedroom, The, 79, 260 

Shadows on the Wall, The, 78, 

99, 104, 226 
Freud, 79 

Friar's Tale, The, 140 
Fu Manchu Stones, 
Furnished Room, The, 60, lOi 
Future, Magic Views of the, 256 



Garland, Hamlin, 69, 76, 200 

Shadow World, The, 200 

Tyranny of the Dark, The, 200 

Garments of Ghosts, 92 et seq. 
Gaston de Blondeville, 19 
Gates Ajar, The, 210 
Gates Between, The, 210 
Gates Beyond, The, 210 
Gautier, Theophile, 62 

La Morte Amoreuse, 62, 163 

Mummy's Foot, The, 62 

Romance of the Mummy, The, 

62 
General William Booth Enters into 

Heaven, 217 
German Romanticism, 67 



Gerould, Gordon H., 202 

Grateful Dead, The, 202 

Gerould, Katherine Fullerton, 61, 

71, 104 

Eighty-Third, The, 61, 281 

Louquier's Third Act, 61 

On the Stairs, 83, 114, 122 

Ghost, The, 60 

Ghost at Point of Rock, The, 83 

Ghost-children, 287 et seq. 

Ghost Moth, The, 290 

Ghost of Miser Brimpson, The, 83 

Ghost of the White Tiger, 291 

Ghost Ship, The, ill, 293 

Ghost of Futurity, 114 

Ghost of Jack, The, no 

Ghost Touch, The, 1 01, 103 

Ghostly Doubles, 119 

Ghostly Odor, 100 

Ghostly Perfume, loi 

Ghostly Psychology, 106 

Ghostly Sounds, 97 et seq. 

Ghosts, Gothic, 18 et seq. 

Ghosts, Modem, 81 et seq. 

Ghouls, 158 

Giaour, The, 160 

Gigantism, 36 

Giknore, Inez Haynes, 294 

Angel Island, 294 

Glamour of the Snow, The, 231 

Glanville, Joseph, 191 

Glasgow, Ellen, Shadowy Third, The, 

203 
Glass of Supreme Moments, The, 157 
Glittering Gate, The, 221, 222 
Glover, Richard, Ballad of Hosier's 

Ghost, 89 
Gnoles, 247 
Gnomes, 347 
Goblin Market, 148 
Goddard, Charles W., 307 

Last Laugh, The, 307 

Gods, 242 

Gods and Fighting Men, 244 

Gods of Pegana, 245 

Gods of the Mountains, The, 244, 303 

Godwin, WiUiam, 35, 182 

St. Leon, 35, 36 

Goethe, 133, 162 

Die Braut von Corinth, 162 

Faust, 143, 175 

Gogol, 68 

Cioak, The, 68 

Gothic Romance, et seq. 

Granville, Charles, 179 

Plaint of the Wandering Jew, 

The, 179 



3i8 



Index 



Great God Pan, The, 247 
Great Stone of Sardis, The, 262 
Greek and Roman Ghost Stories^ 

202 
Gregory the Great, Dialogues, 202 
Gregory, Lady, 229, 234, 237, 240, 

285 

Cuchulain of Muirthemne, 243 

Gods and Fighting Men, 243 

Grey Guest, The, 94, 282 
Grosse, Marquis, 49 

Horrid Mysteries, 49 

Guy Mannering, 150 
Gypsy Christ, The, 181 



H 



Hag, The, 148 

Haggard, Rider, 183, 193 

Ayesha, 183, 193 

She, 183 

Hale, Lucretia P., Spider's Eye, The^ 
62, 274 

Hall Bedroom, The, 79, 260 

HallofEblis, The, 8 

Hamlet, 18, 118, 144 

Hand, The, 61 

Hannele, 218 

Hans Pfaal, 286 

Happy Prince, The, 238 

Hardy, Thomas: 

Return of the Native, The, 150 

Tess of the D' Urbervilles, 143 

Under the Greenwood Tree, 150 

Withered Arm, The, 225 

Harper, Olive, Sociable Ghost, The, 
III 

Harris, Joel Chandler, 74, 226 

Uncle Remus Tales, 232, 235 

Hart, Charles F., Amazonian Tor- 
toise Myths, 232 

Hartley, Randolph, Black Patch, 
The, 255 

Haunted Hotel, The, 89, 100 

Haunted House, The, 171 

Haunted Island, /I, 114 

Haunted Subalterns, The, 138 

Haunters and the Haunted, The, 60, 
78, 188, 299 

Hauptmann, Carl, 282 

Dead Are Singing, The, 282 

Hauptmann, Gerhardt : 

Hannele, 218 

Sunken Bell, The, 158 

Hawkesworth, John, 70, 190 

Transmigration of a Soul, 190 

Hawthorne, Julian, 121 



Lovers in Heaven, 121, 144, 

213 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel: 

Artist of the Beautiful, The, 287 

Birthmark, The, 185, 270 

Blithedale Romance, The, 188, 

199 

Celestial Railroad, The, 213 

Dr. Heidi gger's Experiment, 

184, 252 
DoUiver Romance, The, 183, 

184 

Feathertop, 152, 156 

House of Seven Gables, The, 158 

Howe's Masquerade, 122 

Intelligence Office, The, 265 

Main Street, 152 

Marble Faun, The, 57 

Prophetic Pictures, 121 

Rappactni's Daughter, 252, 272 

Scarlet Letter, The, 152 

Select Party, A, 178 

Septimius Felton, 143, 150, 

183, 252 

Virtuoso's Collection, A, 78 

Young Goodman Brown, 151 

Heam, Lafcadio, i, 77 

Interpretations of Literature, I, 

77 
Heath Fire, The, 231 
Heaven, 221, 283 
Heaven and Earth, 221 
Heijermans, 176 
Hellas, 176 
Henry, O,, Furnished Room, The, 

60, lOI 
Here and There, loi, 107 
Heretic, The, 207 
Heritage, Tlie, 94 
Herodotus, 166 
Heroes, 242 
Heroine, The, 49, 50 
Herrick, Robert, Hag, The, 148 
Hewlett, Maurice, Forest Lovers, 149 
Hejrwood, Eliza, Lasselia, 42 
His Unquiet Ghost, 83 
History of Duncan Campbell, The, 

255 
H.Story of Jack Smith, or the CcLSlle 

of St. Donats, 20 
Hoax Ghosts, 82 
Hodder, Reginald, Vampire, The, 

68, 163 
Hoffmann, David, 181 
Hoffmann, E. T. A., 51, 59, 69, 

182, 190, 199 
Doppelgdnger, 58 



Index 



319 



Hoffman, E. T. A. (Continued) 

Elixiere des Teufels, 58 

Kater Murr, 58 

Magnetizeur, 58 

Hogg, James: 

Brownie of Bodbeck, 26, 38 

Confessions of a Justified 

Sinner, 29 
Hunt ofEildon, The, 26, 27, 30, 

32 

Witch of Fife, The, 148 

Wool- gatherer, The, 23, 29, 

30, 32 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Elsie Ven- 

ner, 170 
Holy Cross, The, 181 
Horrid Mysteries, 49 
Horsley-Curties, T. J., 9 
Ancient Records or the Abbey of 

St. Oswyth, 9, 12, 21, 32, 42, 43 
Ethelwina, or the House of 

Fitz-Auburne, 25, 38 
Hound of the Baskervilles, The, 290 
Hound of Heaven, The, 283 
House of Judgme7it, The, 214 
House of Souls, The, 271 
House-boat on the Styx, The, 112, 216 
House of Sei>en Gables, The, 158 
Howells, William Dean, 76 

Leatherwood God, The, 310 

Undiscovered Country, The, 

200, 267 
Howe's Masquerade, 122 
Human, Chord, The, 275 
Human Personality, 202 
Humorous Ghosts, no 
Hunt, Leigh, 105 
Hunt of Eildon, The, 26, 27, 30, 32 
Huxley, Thomas Henry, 73, 252 
Hyde, Dr., Paudeen O'Kelley and 

the Weasel, 237 



I 



Ibsen, Henrik, 35, 42 

Brand, 65 

Emperor and Galilean, 42, 66 

Lady from the Sea, The, 66 

Master Builder, 35, 66 

Pretenders, The, 65 

Rosmersholm, 66 

Vikings of Helgeland, The, 65 

Ida Lomond and Her Hour of Vision, 

207 
Immortal Gymnasts, The, 197 
In Caslle Perilous, 118 
In Mr. Eberdeen's House, 124 



In No Strange Land, 96, 212 

In the Dark, 208 

In the House of Suddoo, 146 

Inferno, 144 

Insanity and the Supernatural, 69, 

299 
Insanity in Gothic Fiction, 35 et seq. 
Intelligence Office, The, 265 
Interior, 64 

Interpretations of Literature, i, T7 
Intricate Personality of Specters, 

119 
Invisible Man, The, 95, 269 
Invisible Eye, The, 62 
Irving, Washington, no, 226 
Devil and Tom Walkei , The, 

140 
Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The, 

89 

Rip Van Winkle, 246 

— : — Specter Bridegroom, The, 83, 

no 

Tales of the Alhambra, 226 

Island of Dr. Moreau, The, 271 

Isle of the Penguins, The, 63 

Italian, The, 48 

Ivan, the Fool, 68, 138, 144 

Ivory Gate, The, 122 

In the Track of the Wandering Jew, 

178 



Jacobs, W. W,, Monkey's Paw, The, 

98, 253 
James, Henry : 

Jolly Corner, The, 122 

Turn of the Screw, The, 86, 91, 

109 
Janvier, Thomas A., Legends of the 

City of Mexico, 226 
Jealousy of Ghosts, 117 
Jeanne, The Maid, 282 
Jerome, Jerome K,, Passing of the 

Third Floor Back, The, 305 
Jewel of Seven Stars, The, 191, 274 
Jigar-Khor, The, 165 
John Ingles ant, 87, 98 
Johnson, Arthur, In Mr. Eberdeen's 

House, 124 
Johnston, Mary, Witch, The, 150 
Jolly Corner, The, 122 
Joyzelle, 64 

Judgment of God, The, 234 
Juggler of Notre Dame, The, 63 
Jules Le Vallon, 194 
Julius Ccesar, 18, 84 



320 



Index 



Jungle Tales, 232 



K 



Kaffir Tales, 232 
Kater Murr, 58 
Keats, John, 148 

La Belle, Dame sans Merci, 148 

Lamia, 162 

Keeping His Promise, 98 

Kelpie, The, 155 

Kennedy, Charles Rann, Servant in 

the House, The, 66, 305 
Kennedy, Patrick, 243 

Bardic Stories of Ireland, 243 

Fiction of the Irish Celts, 243 

Kentucky's Ghost, 199 
Kerfol, 290 
Khaled, 62, 70, 147 
Kinetoscope of Time, The, 256 
King, Basil, 203 

Old Lady Pingree, 203 

King Lear, 13 

Kingdom Come, 282, 306 

Kingemann, 176 

King Hunger, 207, 308 

Kingsley, Charles, Water Babies, 240 

Kipling, Rudyard, 53, 71, 99, 104, 

180 

At the End of the Passage, 120 

Brushwood Boy, The, 195 

Bubble Well Road, 138 

Courting of Dinah Shadd, The, 

152 

Dog Harvey, The, 291 

Haunted Subalterns, The, 138 

In the House of Suddoo, 146 

Jungle Talcs, 232 

Last of the Stories, The, 197, 215 

Mark of the Beast, The, 100, 

167 

Phantom Rickshaw, The, 88, 94 

Swept and Garnished, 94., 282, 

288 

They, 84, 93, 288 

Kittredge, George Lyman, 30, 224 

A rthur and Gorlogon, 30 

Kleist, 59 

Klosterheim, 56 

Knock! Knock! Knock! 68 

Kummer, Frederick Arnold, Second 

Coming, The, 281 
Kundry, 181 



Le Belle Dame sans Merci, 148 



La CittcL Morta, 66, 299 

Lady from the Sea, The, 66 

La Horla, 61, 95 

Lair of the White Worm, The, 188 

Lais, 7 

Lamia, 162 

La Morte Amoreuse, 62, 163 

Land of Darkness, The, 212 

Land of Heart's Desire, The, 65, 240, 

306 
Lang, Andrew, 118, 188, 242 

In Castle Perilous, 118 

St. Germain, the Deathless, 188 

Lasselia, 42 

Last Ghost in Harmony, The, 104, 

201 
Last Laugh, The, 307 
Last of the Stories, The, 197, 215 
Later Influences, 54 et seq. 
Latham, Francis, Midnight Bell, 49 
Laughing Gas, 278 
Lay of the Brown Rosary, The, 148 
Leatherwood God, The, 310 
Leaves from the Autobiography of a 

Soul in Paradise, 207 
Lee, Robert James : 

Astral Bridegroom, An, 207 

Car of Phoebus, The, 207 

Heretic, The, 207 

Leaves from the Autobiography 

of a Soul in Paradise, 207 

Life Elysian, The, 207 

Through the Mists, 208 

Vagrom Spirit, The, 207 

Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The, 89 

Legend of Sharp, -4, 134 

Leprechauns, 239 

Letters from a Living Dead Man, 207 

Le Vampire, 159 

Lewis, Arthur, 242 

London Fairy Tales, 242 

Lewis, Mary L,, Stranger than Fic- 
tion, 207 
Lewis, Matthew Gregory (" Monk ") , 

14, 16, 77 

Castle Specter, The, 53 

Monk, The, 12, 16, 22, 24, 

26, 27, 30, 33, 34, 35, 37, 177 
Liebgeber Schappe, 122 
Life after Death, 209 et seq. 
Lif*ed Veil, The, 257 
Ligeia, 123, 191 
Likely Story, A, 287 
Lindsay, Nicholas Vachell, General 

William Booth Enters into Heaven, 

217 
Little Crow of Paradise, The, 234 



Index 



321 



Little Gray Ghost, The, 118 

Little Mermaid, The, 155, 176, 233 
Little Pilgrim in the Unseen, The, 212 
Little White Bird, The, 240 
Lloyd, X. M., Last Ghost in Har- 
mony, The, 104, 201 
Locke, Edward, Case of Becky, The, 

305 
Lodge, Sir Oliver, 74 

Raymond, or Life and Death, 75 

London Fairy Taies, 242 
London, Jack: 

Scarlet Plague, The, 262 

Star Rover, The, 264 

Long Chamber, The, 118 

Looking Backward, 189, 262 

Los Amigos Fiasco, The, 187, 270 

Loss of Breath, TJw, 74 

Lot No. 49, 62 

Louquier's Third Act, 61 

Love Philter, The, 267 

Lovers in Heaven, 121, 144, 213 

Lowell, James Russell, Fable for 

Critics, A, 57 
Lucas, Charles, History of Jack 

Smith, or the Castle of St. Donats, 

The, 20 
Lycanthrope, The, 39 
L>^ton, Edward George, Earle Lyt- 

ton Bulwer-Lytton, ist baron, 60 



M 



Macaulay, Thomas Babicgton, no 
Macbeth,' Id, , 98, 153, 295 
MacJten, Arthur, 52, ;o, 79, 117, 

247, 250, 300, 301 
Bowmen and Others, The, 204, 

258, 282 

Hill of Dreams, The, -jc) 

House of Souls, The, 271 

Monstrance, The, 288 

Red Hayid, The, 247 

Seeing the Great God Pan, 139 

Three Impostors, The, 247, z6g 

Mad, 61 

Mad Lady, The, 286 

Madness, 61 

Maeterlinck, Maurice, 6, 42, 64, 299 

Blind, The, 64, 298 

Blue-bird, The, 64, 278, 289, 

306 

Interior, 64 

Intruder, The, 64, 304 

Joyzelle, 64 

Magic, 306 

Magic Shadow, The, 296 



Magic Skin, The, 60 

Magnetiseur, 58 

Maighdeanmhara, The, 155 

Main Street, 152 

Man and Superman, 217 

Man in Black, The, 137 

Man from the Gods, The, 121 

Man Overboard, 97 

Man with a Shadow, The, 122 

Man Whom the Trees Loved, The, 230, 

272 
Man with the Pigeons, The, 218 
Man Who had been in Fairyland^ 

The, 241 
MS. found in a Bottle, The, 253 
Marble Faun, The, 57 
Marie de France, 30, 118 

Bisclaveret, 30, 168 

Markheim, 120 

Mark of the Beast, The, 100, 167 

Marlowe, Christopher, 27, 153 

Doctor Faustus, 15, 143 

Marsh, Richard, Beetle, The, 290 
Martian, The, 196, 207, 264 
Mass of Shadows, The, 63 
Master Builder, The, 35, 66 
Master Christian, The, 309 
Mather, Cotton, 130 
Matthews, Brander : 
Dream Gown of the Japanese 

Ambassador, The, 79 

Kinetoscope of Time, The, 256 

Primer of Imaginary Geo- 
graphy, A, 181, 216 

Rival Ghosts, 112 

Maturin, Charles Robert, 9, 17, 38, 

59, 182 
Albigenses, The, 9, 11, 94, 

168,288 
Melmoth, the Wanderer, 8, 10, 

12, 24, 26, 36, 41, 44, 138 
Maupassant, Gu}' de, 60, 69, 299 

Cocotte, 61 

Coward, The, 61 

Ghost, The, 60 

Hand, The, 61 

La Horla, 61, 95 

Mad, 61 

Madness, 61 

Tress, The, 61 

Wolf, The, 172 

McDonald, George, Portent, The, 

266 
McLeod, Fiona: 

Dark Nameless One, The, 155 

Divine Adventure, The, 248 

Judgment of God, The, 234 



322 



Index 



McLeod, Fiona (Continued) 

Sin Eater, The, 138 

Mechanistic Supematuralism, 286 

et seq. 
Meg Merrilies, 150 
Meinhold, 56 
Melmoih Reconcilie, 59 
Melmoth, the Wanderer, 8, 10, 12, 

24, 26, 36, 41, 44, 138 
Meredith, George, 71, 127 

Shaving of Shagpat, The, 7 1 

Merlin, 145 

Mermaid, The, 234 

Mermaid, The, 306 

Merman and the Seraph, The, 234 

Meroe, 145 

Mesmeric Revelations, 266 

Messenger, The, 88 

Metamorphoses, 145 

Metempsychosis, 180 et seq. 

Metzenger stein, 287, 291 

Middle Toe of the Right Foot, The, 

61,92 
Middleton, Jessie Adelaide, 92 

Ghost with Half a Face, The, 92 

Middleton, Richard, iii, 288 

Cofin Merchant, The, 254 

Ghost Ship, The, ill, 293 

Passing of Edward, The, 99, 288 

Midnight Beh, 49 

Midsummer Night's Dream, A, 64 

Milne-Home, Mary Pamela, Anan- 

si Stories, 232 
Milton, John, 27, 133, 239 

Comus, 7, 148 

Paradise Lost, 144, 209, 211, 

215 
Mine Host and the Witch, 148 
Miracle, The, 254 
Miracle Man, The, 306 
Miss Mehitabel's Son, 63, 68, 85, 287 
Mistaken Ghost, The, 62 
Mitchell, J. A,, Amos Judd, 40, 257 
Molnar, Fernac, Devil, The, 138 
Monastery, The, 225 
Monk, The, 12, 16, 22, 24, 26, 27, 30, 

33, 35, 37. ^77 
Monkey's Paw, The, 98 
Monstrance, The, 288 
Moody, William Vaughn, Faith 

Healer, The, 306 
Moon Lady, The, 233 
Moon Madness, 139, 231 
Moore, George, Brook Kenth, The, 

310 
Morella, 123, 190 
Morris, William, 236, 250 



Water of the Wondrous Isle, 

The, 236 
Well at the World's End, The, 

236 
Wood beyond the World, The, 

236 
Mosen, Julius, 176 
Mother in Paradise, The, 213 
Motives for Ghost Appearance, 113 
Mr. Isaacs, 37, 71 
Mrs. VeaL, 205 
Mummy's Foot,, The, 62 
Mummy's Tale, The, no 
My Aunt Margaret's Mirror, 225 
Myers, Human Personality, 202 
Mysteries of Udolpho, The, 9, 48 
Mysterious Mother, The, 53 
Mysterious Stranger, The, 142 
Mysterious Warnings, 49 
Mystery and Mystification in 

Gothicism, 43 
Mystery of Joseph Laquedem, The, 

181,195 
Myths and Legends of Our Land, 187 



N 



Nathan, George Jean, Eternal Mys- 
tery, The, 306 
Neckan, The, 155, 233 
Nemesis of Fire, A, 98 
Never Bet the Devil Your Head, 140 
New Accelerator, The, 286 
New A rabian Nights, The, 70 
Night at an Inn, A, 244, 303 
Night Call, The, 83 
Nightingale and the Rose, The, 235, 

293 
Nightmare Abbey, 51 
Norris, Frank, Vandover and the 

Brute, 167 
Northanger Abbey, 47, 51 
Notch on the Axe, The, 89, 188 
Noyes, Alfred, Creation, 277 
Nyria, 207 



O 



O'Brien, Fitz-James, 61 

Diamond Lens, The, 274 

What Was It? A Mystery, 

61,96 
Occult Magazine, The, 163 
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, 

The, 275 
Ode on the Popular Suptntitions of 

the Highlands, 74 



Index 



323 



O'Donnell, Elliot, 88, no 

Mummy's Tale, The, no 

Werewolves, 170 

Old Clothes, 124, 194 

Old English Baron, The, 16, 19, 40 

Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts, 154 

Old Lady Mary, 2 1 1 

Old Men of the Twilight, The, 234 

Old Wives' Tale, no, 145 

Oliphant, Mrs. Margaret: 

Beleaguered City, The, 211 

Land of Darkness, The, 212 

Little Pilgrim in the Unseen, 

The, 212 

Old Lady Mary, 211, 298 

Open Door, The, 211 

Portrait, The, 2n * 

On Certain Proceedings of the 

Psychical Research Society, 221 
On the Knocking at the Gate in 

Macbeth, 295 
On the Stairs, 61, 114, 122 
Open Door, The, 211 
Origin of Individual Gothic Tales, 

13 et seq. 
O'Shaughnessy, Arthur, 168 
Our Last Walk, 103 
Oval Portrait, The, 58 
Ovid, 166 
Owl's Ear, The, 62 



Pagan Seal-wife, The, 233 

Page, Thomas Nelson, 226 

Pain, Barry, 53, 79, 157 

Blue Roses, 268 

Celestial Grocery, The, 265, 300 

Exchange, The, 153, 156, 197 

Glass of Supreme Moments, 

The, 157 

Love Philter, The, 267 

Moon Madness, 139, 231 

Undying Thing, The, 271 

Wrong Elixir, The, 186 

Zero, 257 

Paine, Albert Bigelow, Elixir of 
Youth, The, 186 

Pair of Hands, A, 103, 288 

Panghorne, Georgia Wood, Substi- 
tute, The, 88 

Paradise Lost, 144, 209, 211, 215 

Parsifal, 181 

Parsons, Francis, Borderland, The, 
124 

Parsons, Mrs. M., Mysterious Warn- 
ings, A9 



Passing of Edward, The, 99, 288 
Passing of the Third Floor Back, 

The, 66, 303 
Passionate Crime, The, 242 
Patience Worth, 197, 207 
Paudeen O'Kelley and the Weasel, 

Peacock, Thomas Love, Nightmare 
Abbey, 51 

Pearce, J. H., Little Crow of Para- 
dise, The, 234 

Peele, George, 145 

Old Wives' Tale, no, 145, 202, 

293 

Phre Antoine's Date Palm, 63 

Peter Ibbetson, 186, 196, 206, 300 

Peter Pan, 240, 306 

Peter Rugg, the Missing Man, 189 

Phantom Rickshaw, The, 88, 94 

Phantoms, 68 

Phelps, William Lyon, 41 

Beginnings of the English Ro- 
mantic Movement, 41 

Phillpotts, Eden, 83 

Another Little Heath Hound^ 

290 

Children of the Mist, 226 

Ghost of Miser Brimpson, The, 

83 

Witch, The, 151, 226 

Picture of Dorian Grey, The, 32, 

60, 121, 134 
Pit and the Pendulum, The, 253 
Plaint of the Wandering Jew, The, 

179 
Planche, J. R., 160 
Vampire, or the Bride of the 

Isles, 160 
Plattner Case, The, 260 
Plays of the Natural and the Super- 
natural, 208 
Pliny, 72 
Poe, Edgar Allan, 58, 69, 252, 299 

Berenice, 62 

Bon Bon, 41, 95 

Descent into the Maelstrom, 

The, 231, 253 

Devil in the Belfry, The, 141 

Eleanor a, 103 

Facts in the Case of M. Walde- 

mar, The, 266 
Fall of the House of Usher, 

The, 295 

Hans Pfaal, 286 

Ligeia, 123, 191 

Loss of Breath, 74 

MS. Found in a Bottle, 253 



324 



Index 



Poe, Edgar Allen (Continued) 

Mesmeric Revelations, 266 

Metzengerstein, 287, 291 

Morella, 123, 190 

Never Bet the Devil Your Head, 

140 

Oval Portrait, The, 58 

Pit and the Pendulum, The, 

253 

Raven, The, 56 

Tale of the Ragged Mountains, 

^,58, 190 

William Wilson, 58, 120 

Polidior, Vampyre, The, 160 

Pomponius Mela, 166 

Portent, The, 266 

Portents in Gothic Romance, 39 

Portrait, The, 211 

Powell, J. W., 232 

Pretender, The, 65 

Primer of Imaginary Geography, 

The, 181, 216 
Primitive Culture, 227 
Prince, Morton, 305 
Disassociation of a Personality, 

The, 305 
Prince of India, The, 179 
Proby, W. C, Spirit of the Castle, 

The, 40 
Prophetic Pictures, 121 
Prue and I, 121, 258 
Psychic Invasion, ^,106 
Psychical Research, 73, 199 et seq. 
Pursuit of the House-boat, The, 112, 

187,216 
Pushkin, Alexander, Queen of Spades, 

The, 69 
Putois, 63 
Pyle, Howard, Evil Eye, The, 152 



Q 



Queen Mab, 176 
Queen of Hearts, The, 107, 113 
Queeft of Sheba, The, 122 
Queen of Spades, The, 69 
Quiller-Couch, A. T., 154 

Magic Shadow, The, 296 

Mystery of Joseph Laquedem, 

The, 181, 195 
Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts, 

154 

Pair of Hands, A, 103, 288 

Roll-call of the Reef, The, 

107 
Quinet, Edgar, 176 



Radcliffe, Anne, 9, 16, 23, 43, 44, 

45, 46, 71, 82 

Gaston de BlondeviUe, 19 

Italian, The, 48 

Mysteries of Udolpho, The, 9, 

48 

Romance of the Castle, The, 44 

Sicilian Romance, A, 45, 50, 

301 
Raleigh, Sir Walter, English Novel, 

The, 46 
Rappacini's Daughter, 252, 272 
Raven, The, 56 

Raymond, or Life and Death, 75 
Readjustment, 107 
Real Ghost Stories, 282 
Rebellious Heroine, The, 197 
Recent Carnival of Crime in Con- 
necticut, The, 122 
Red Debts, 146 
Red Hand, The, 247 
Red Ranrahan, 186, 243 
Reeve, Clara, 16 
Old English Baron, The, 16, 

19,40 
Regeneration of Lord Ernie, The, 230 
Reineche Fuchs, 213 
Religion in Recent American Novels, 

310 
Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes, 

The, 256 
Return, The, 123, 198 
Return of Peter Grimm, The, 201, 298 
Return of the Native, The, 150 
Revolt, of the Angels, The, 220 
Reynard the Fox, 23 1 
Reynard the Fox, in South Africa, 

232 
Rhodes, Benrimo and Harrison, 

Willow Tree, The, 306 
Richter, Jean Paul, Leibgeber 

Schappe, 122 
Rideout, Henry, Ghost of the White 

Tiger, The, 291 
Riders to the Sea, 10, 304 
Riding to Lithend, 152 
Rip Van Winkle, 246 
Rival Ghosts, 112 
Roche, Regina Maria, 10, 43, 45, 50 

Clermont, 45, 49 

Roger of Wendover's Chronicles, 175 
Rohmer, Sax, 146 

Flower of Silence, The, 273 

Fu-Manchu Stories, 253, 268, 

270,272 



Index 



325 



Roll-call of the Reef, The, 107 

Romance of the Castle, The, 40 

Romance of the Mummy, The, 62 

Romance of Two Worlds, A, 21^ 

Romantic Movement, 55 

Romantic Reduplication and Psy- 
chology, 122 

Rosary, The, 306 

Rosmersholm, 66 

Rossetti, Christina, Goblin Market, 
148 

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, Sister 
Helen, 67, 153 

Royle, Edward Milton, Unwritten 
Law, The, 306 

Russian Literature, 67 



St. Germain, the Deathless, 188 

St. Irvyne, the Rosicrucian, 17, 35, 36 

St. Leon, 35, 36 

St. Oswyth, 12 

Saintsbury, George, Tales of 

Mystery, 48 
Saint, The, 66 
Salathiel, or Tarry Thou Till I Come, 

179 
Sancta Susanna, 307 
Satire on Gothicism, 47 et seq. 
Satirical Supernaturalism, 294 
Scarlet Letter, The, 152 
Scarlet Plague, The, 262 
Scenery, Gothic, 10 
Schiller, Robbers, The, 16 
Schlegel, 176 
Scholasticus , 63 
Science, Gothic, 33 
Science, Supernatural, 251 et seq. 
Scott, Sir Walter, 38, 56, 115, 225, 

246 

Betrothed, The, 225 

Bride of Lammermoor, The, 38 

Guy Mannering, 150 

Monastery, The, 225 

My Aunt Margaret's Mirror, 

225 
Talisman, The, 134, 146, 147, 

225 

Two Drovers, The, 151, 225 

Woodstock, 225 

Screaming Skull, The, 60, 89, 92 

Sea Fit, The, 230 

Sea Lady, The, 234 

Second Coming, The, 281 

Second Wife, The, 122 

Secret of Goresthorpe Grange, The, 79 



Secret Worship, 105, 117, 137 

Seeing the Great God Pan, 139 

Select Party, ^,178 

Selfish Giant, The, 246 

Sensitives, 298 

Septimius Felton, 143, 150, 183, 252 

Servant in the House, The, 66, 305 

Shadow World, The, 200 

Shadows on the Wall, The, 78, 99, 

104,226 
Shadowy Third, The, 203 
Shakespeare, 13, 18, 56, 84, 115, 119 

Hamlet, 18, 118, 144 

Julius Ccesar, 18, 84 

King Lear, 13 

Macbeth, 17, 98, 152, 153, 295 

Midsummer Night's Dream, 

64 

Tempest, The, 64 

Sharp, William, 65, 285 

Gypsy Christ, The, 181 

Vistas, 65, 278 

Shaving of Shagpat, The, 71 

Shaw, George Bernard, Man and 

Superman, 217, 306 
She, 183 
Sheldon, Edward: 

Mermaid, The, 234 

Shell of Sense, The, 85, 212 
Shelley, Mary, 14 

Frankenstein, 14, 17, 34 

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 17, 35, 176, 

180,182 
Fragment of an Unfinished 

Drama, 48 

Hellas, 176 

Queen Mab, 1 76 

St. Irvyne, the Rosicrucian, 

17, 35, 36 

Witch of Atlas, The, 148 

Wandering Jew, The, 176 

Zastrozzi, 10, 12 

Shorthouse, J. H. : 

Countess Eve, 138 

John Inglesant, 66, 87, 98 

Shropshire Folk Tales, 291 

Sicilian Romance, A, 45, 50, 301 

Sidhe, The, 242 

Signal Man, The, 114 

Silence, 293 

Silvani, Anita, 88, 207 

Ahrinziman, 88, 183,213 

Silver Mirror, The, 259 
Sin Eater, The, 138 
Sinner, The, 66 
Sister Helen, 67, 153 
Skinner, C. M., 187 



326 



Index 



68 



76 



Skinner, C. M. (Continued) 

Myths and Legends of Our 

Land, 187 
Smale, Fred C, Afterwards, 102, 202 
Smith, Benjamin, Merman and the 

Seraph, The, 234 
Sociable Ghost, The, iii 
Sogno d'un Mattino di Primavera, 

67,300 
Sogno d'un Tramonto d'Autunno, 

67,152 
Solomon, Simeon, Vision of Love 

Revealed in Sleep, 79 
Song of Love Triumphant, The, 
Songs from a Vagrom Spirit, 207 
Song of the Wandering Jew, The, 
Sorcerer, The, 145 
Sorrows of Satan, The, 136, 144 
Soul of the Moor, The, 207 
Soul on Fire, ^,193 
Souls on Fifth, 123, 198, 215 
Southey, Robert, Thalaba, 161 
Spearmen, F. H., Ghost at Point of 

Rock, The, 83 
Speck on the Lens, The, 255 
Specter Bridegroom, The, 83, no 
Spectral Mortgage, The, 63 
Spencer, Herbert, 251 
Spenser, Edmund, 239 

Faerie Queene, The, 7 

Speranza (Lady Wilde), 229, 240 
A ncient Legends and Super- 
stitions of Ireland, 229 
Spider's Eye, The, 62, 274 
Spirit of Turrettville, The, 23 
Spiritualism, 73, 199 et seq. 
Spofford, Harriet Prescott, 286 

Mad Lady, The, 286 

Spring Recital, A, 208 
Star, The, 264 
Star Rover, The, 264 
Stead, W. T., 74 
Stephens, James, 219 

Crock of Gold, The, 241, 246 

Demi-gods, The, 219, 221 

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 70 

Bottle Imp, The, 70 

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 120, 

268,305 

Markheim, 120 

New A rabian Nights, The, 70 

Thrawn Janet, 137 

Stockton, Frank R,, 293 

Great Stone of Sardis, The, 262 

Spectral Mortgage, The, 63 

Tale of Negative Gravity, A, 

274, 286 



Transferred Ghost, The, 63, 87, 

III, 122 
Stoker, Bram, 78, 92, 117, 180 

Dracula, 78, 163, 188, 301 

Jewel of Seven Stars, The, 

191,274 
Lair of the White Worm, The, 

188 
Stories of Red Ranrahan, 186, 243 
Story of Days to;iCome, A, 262 
Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham, The, 

122, 185 
Stramm, August, 209, 251, 308 

Daughter of the Moor, The, 304 

Sancta Susanna, 307 

Strange Adventures of Phra, the 

Phoenician, The, 188 
Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchion, The, 

254. 299 
Strange Story, A, 90, 182 
Stuart, Ruth McEner}^ 226 
Styx River Anthology, The, 216 
Subjective Ghosts, 83 
Substitute, The, 88 
Sue, Eugene, 176, 178 

Wandering Jew, The, 176, 180 

Suggested by Some of the Proceedings 

of the Psychical Research Society, 

283 
Sunken Bell, The, 158 
Supernatural in Folk-tales, 233 et 

seq. 
Supernatural in Tragedy, The, 305 
Supernatural Life, 1 74 et seq. 
Supernatural Science, 251 et seq. 
Sutton, Vida, Kingdom Come, 282, 

306 
Swept and Garnished, 94, 282, 288 
Synge, John, 10, 229, 240 

Riders to the Sea, 10, 304 

Swanson, Frederick, Ghost Moth, 

The, 290 
Swift, Dean, 35 



Tale of Negative Gravity, A, 274, 286 
Tale of the Ragged Mountains, A , 

58, 190 
Tales of the Alhambra, 226 
Tales of Mystery, 48 
Talisman, The, 134, 146, 147, 225 
Tam O'Shanter, 156 
Tchekhov: 

Black Monk, The, 69 

Sleepyhead, 69 

Ward No. 6, 69 



Index 



327 



Temperament, Gothic, 46 
Tempest, The, 64 
Tentptatio7i of the Clay, The, 231 
Terror of Blue John Gap, The, 272 
Terror of the Twins, The, 122, 192 
Tess of the D' Urbervilles, 143 
Thackeray, W. M., 55, 89 

Fairy Pantomime, A , 240 

Notch on the Axe, A, 89, 188 

Thalaba, 161 

Theal, Kaffir Tales, 232 

Theodora, 103 

They, 84, 93, 288 

They That Mourn, 85, 108 

They That Walk in Darkness, 136 

Thomas, Augustus, 306 

Witching Hour, The, 306 

Thompson, Francis, Hound of 

Heaven, The, 283 
Thomdike, Ashley Horace, 42 

Tragedy, 42 

Thrawn, Janet, 137 
Three Impostors, The, 247, 269 
Through the Mists, 207 
Thurlow's Christmas Story, 121 
Thurston, E. Temple, Passionate 

Crime, The, 242 
Ticket-of -leave Angel, The, 221 
Tieck, Ludwig, 56, 59 
Time and the Gods, 245 
Time Machine, The, 189, 260 
Tolstoi, Ivan, 68 

Ivan, the Fool, 68, 138, 144 

Tompkins, Juliet Wilbur, They 

That Mourn, 85, 108 
Tragedy, 42 
Transfer, The, 164 
Transferred Ghost, The, 63, 87, 

122 
Transmigration of a Soul, The, 
Tress, The, 61 
Trilby, 267 

Triumph of Night, The, 121 
Tryst, The, 126,211 
Turgeniev, Ivan, 68, 69, 163 

Clara Militch, 68, 162 

Dream, The, 68 

Knockl Knock! Knock! 68 

Phantoms, 68 

Song of Love Triumphant, The, 

68 
Turn of the Screw, The, 86, 91, 109 
Twain, Mark, 142 
Connecticut Yankee at King 

Arthur's Court, A, 189, 262, 286 
Extracts from Captain Storm- 
field's Visit to Heaven, 201, 217 



III, 



190 



Mysterious Stranger, The, 142, 

303 
Recent Carnival of Crime in 

Connecticut, The, 122 
Twilight, 268 

Two Drovers, The, 151, 225 
Two Military Executions, 116 
Two Voices, 97 
Tylor, Primitive Culture, 227 
Tyranny of the Dark, The, 200 



U 



Unburied, The, 66, 301 

Uncle Remus Tales, 232, 235 

Under the Greenwood Tree, 150 

Undine, 57 

Undiscovered Country, The, 200, 267 

Unknown Masterpiece, The, 60 

Undying Thing, The, 271 

Unwritten Law, The, 306 

Upper Berth, The, 100 

Usury, 198 

V 

Vampire, The, 159 

Vampire, The, 68, 163 

Vampire Bride, The, 159 

Vampire, or the Bride of the Isles, 

The, 159 
Vampires, 158 et seq. 
Vampyre, The, 160 
Vandover and the Brute, 167 
Van Dyke, Henry, Night Call, The, 

83 
Van Lerberghe, Charles, Flaireurs, 

64 
Vathek, 8, 17, 22, 25, 29, 33, 37, 70 
Vendetta of the Jungle, J4, 168 
Vera, the Medium, 200 
Vergil, Culex, 290 
Views of Other Planets, 263 
Vikings of Helgeland, The, 65 
Vine on the House, The, 90 
Virtuoso's Collection, The, 78 
Visio7i of Judgment, A, 214. 
Vision of Judgment, ^,134 
Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep, A , 

79 

Vistas, 65, 278 

Vorse, Mary Heaton, Second Wife, 
The, 122, 192 



W 



Wallace, Edgar, Bones, Sanders, 
and Another, 156 



328 



Index 



Wallace, Lew, 179 

Fair God, The, 256 

Prince of India, 1 79 

Wandering.Jew, The, 8, 175 et seq. 
Wandering Jew, The, 176 
Wandering Jew, The, 176 
Wandering Jew, The, 176, 180 
Wandering Jew, A Christmas Carol, 

The, 177 
Wandering Jew, or the Travels 0} 

Bareach, the Prolonged, The, 178 
Wanderings of Cain, The, 118 
Walpole, Horace, 6, 8, 11, 14, 71, 

92, 188, 309 
Castle of Otranto, The, 6, 8, 

16, 17, 25,31,32, 36, 40, 41, 52, 

lOI 

Mysterious Mother, The, 53 

War Letters from a Living Dead 

Man, 207, 292 
War of the Wenuses, The, 263 
War of the Worlds, The, 263 
Ward, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, 199, 

290 

Day of My Death, The, 199 

Gates Ajar, The, 210 

Gates Between, The, 210 

Gates Beyond, The, 210 

Kentucky's Ghost, 199 

Ward No. 6, 69 

Warning, The, 276 

Water Babies, The, 240 

Water Ghost and Others, The, 112 

Water of the Wondrous Isle, The, 

236 
Waters of Death, The, 62 
Wave, The, 194 
Webster, John, Duchess of Malfi, 

The, 8, 166 
Wedmore, Frederick, Dream of 

Provence, A, 293 
Well at the World's End, The, 236 
Wells, Carolyn, Styx River Antho- 
logy, The, 216 
Wells, H. G.: 

Crystal Egg, The, 263 

Days of the Comet, The, 264 

Door in the Wall, The, 258 

Dream of Armageddon, A, 

196, 262 
First Men in the Moon, The, 

264 
Flowering of the Strange Orchid, 

62, 164, 273 

In the Days of the Comet, 264 

Invisible Man, The, 95, 269 

Island of Dr. Moreau, The, 271 



Man Who Had Been in Fairy- 
land, The, 241 

New Accelerator, The, 286 

Plattner Case, The, 260 

Remarkable Case of Davidson's 

Eyes, The, 256 

^Sea Lady, The, 234 

Star, The, 264 

Story of Days to Come, A , 262 

Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham , 

The, 122, 185 

Time Machine, The, 189, 260 

Vision of Judgment, A, 214. 

War of the Worlds, The, 263 

When the Sleeper Wakes, 262 

Wonderful Visit, The, 218, 221, 

302 
Wentz, W. Y. E., 239 
Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries , 

239 

Werewolf, The, 166 et seq. 
Werewolf, The, 169, 172 
Werewolves, 170 
Weston, Jessie Adelaide, 146 

Black Magic, 146 

Mummy's Foot, The, 62 

Wetmore, Elizabeth Bisland, Dop- 

pelgdnger. The, 122 
Weyman, Stanley J., Man in 

Black, The, 137 
Wharton, Edith, 53, 121 

Afterwards, 302 

Duchess at Prayer, The, 121, 

303 

Eyes, The, 297 

Kerfol, 290 

Triumph of Night, The, 121 

What Was It? A Mystery, 61, 96 
When the Gods Slept, 63, 74 
When the Sleeper Wakes, 262 
Whicher, George Frisbee, Life and 

Romances of Mrs. Eliza Hey- 

wood, 42 
White Lady of Avenel, 225 
White People, The, 203, 298 
White Sleep of Auber Hum, The, 

121 
Whitman, Stephen French, Woman 

from Yonder, The, 126, 187 
Whitmore, E. C., 305 
Supernatural in Tragedy, The, 

305 
Wieland, 35. 39 
Wilde, Oscar, 32, 240, 249 
Fisherman and His Soul, The, 

134. 153, 236 
Happy Prince, The, 238 



Index 



329 



Wilde, Oscar {Continued) 

House of Judgment, TJte, 214 

Legend of Sharp, A, 134 

Nightingale and the Rose, The, 

235. 293 
Picture of Dorian Grey, The, 

32, 60, 121, 134 

Selfish Giant, The, 246 

Wilkinson, William Cleaver, 284 
William of Xewbur>', 159 
William Wilson, 58, 120 
Williams, Blanche Colton, 83 
Williams, Frances Fenwick: 

Soul on Fire, A, 193 

Theodora, 193 

Willow Tree, The, 306 

Wisdom of the King, The, 154 

Witch, The, 149 

Witch, The, 151 

Witch, The, 145 et seq. 

Witch of Atlas, The, 148 

Witch of Edmondton, TJie, 150 

Witch of Endor, The, 145 

Witch of Fife, The, 148 

Witch of Prague, The, 149, 195, 266 

Witch Hazel, 157 

Witches, Gothic, 26 et seq. 

Witching Hour, The, 306 

With Intent to Steal, 62, 1 17 

Withered Arm, The, 225 

Wizard, The, 145 et seq. 

Wolf, The, 172 

Woman, The, 66, 194, 300 

Woman from Yonder, The, 126, 187 

Wonderful Visit, The, 218, 221, 302 



Wood beyond the World, The, 236 
Woodstock, 225 

Wool-gatherer, The, 23, 29, 30 
Word unth a Mummy, A, 62 
Wordsworth, William, Song of the 

Wandering Jew, The, 176 
Wrong Elixir, The, 186 
Wuthering Heights, 86, 226 



Yeats, W. B., 226, 237, 240, 248, 

285 

Celtic Twilight, The, 239 

Countess Cathleen, 65, 143 

Curse of the Fires arid the 

Shadows, The, 154 
Land of Heart's Desire, The, 

65, 340, 306 
Old Men of the Twilight, The, 

234 

Stories of Red Ranrahan, 186, 

243 

msdom of the King, The, 154 

Young Goodman Brown, 151 



Zangwill, Israel, They That Walk in 

Darkness, 136 
Zastrozzi, 17 
Zero, 257 
Zofloya, 10, 17, 28, 33, 37, 38, 53, 

I54v25i 
Zola, Emile, 252 



VITA 

Dorothy Scarborough was born near Tyler, Texas, and 
received her early education at Baylor University, at Waco, 
Texas. After taking the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and 
Master of Arts at that institution, she spent six months in the 
graduate school in Chicago University. She later spent one 
year in Oxford University, England, and a year and a half in 
Columbia University. She was successively fellow, assistant, 
instructor, and assistant professor in English, in Baylor 
University, and is now instructor in English in Extension in 
Columbia University. She has received the degree of Doctor 
of Philosophy from the last-named institution. She has 
served as president of the Texas Folk-lore Association, and is 
a member of the Shakespeare Society at Stratford-on-Avon, 
and a member of the Modern Language Association of 
America. She published a volume entitled Fugitive Verses, 
in 1912. 



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